All three Swiss mobile operators - Swisscom, Sunrise and Salt - have significantly increased standard roaming rates for calls and SMS, when not using a special roaming package, according to an analysis by the comparison portals Moneyland.ch and Dschungelkompass.ch. While Sunrise increased rates the most, Swisscom offers the lowest rates of the three MNOs.
According to an analysis by Ralf Beyeler from Moneyland.ch, standard roaming tariffs at Sunrise in Europe have not been so high since 2003. Between the end of 2002 and spring 2015, Sunrise charged for voice roaming in Europe CHF 1.70 per minute. Since spring 2015, the fee was CHF 1.30 per minute, and now it is CHF 1.75 per minute.
Beyeler recommends customers consult the comparison portals, including rates charged by operators for individual countries. An alternative option could be to subscribe to a tariff which includes roaming, only for the time of stay abroad.
According to Oliver Zadori from the portal Dschungelkompass.ch, the high standard rates for roaming can be circumvented by subscription options.
In the EU roaming prices, the three MNOs show significant differences. Outgoing calls in the EU cost the least at Swisscom, at CHF 0.45, while Sunrise charges CHF 1.75 and Salt even more: CHF 1.99 in the majority of countries and CHF 1.79 in countries such as Germany, France and Italy.
For incoming calls, Swisscom is the most convenient operator with the rate of CHF 0.27 per minute, followed by Salt with CHF 0.79 per minute and Sunrise with CHF 1 per minute.
Sunrise prices have increased the most in Zone 3 countries, while in Zone 1, which includes the EU, US and Canada, the prices grew by 20 to 35 percent. In Zone 2, which includes countries such as Albania, Macedonia, Australia and Thailand, the price increase was over 80 percent in some cases. In Zone 3, comprising e.g. Argentina, Cuba, Ukraine and South Korea, the prices have increased massively - by 116 percent.
