Telecommunication
A call to a number starting with 0900, 0901 or 0906 (combined designation: 090x) costs more than a phone call to a friend, a customer or your mother. In addition to a simple conversation, it also provides you with a service, which is charged directly to you on your telephone bill. The price of a call to one of these value-added services may vary from a few tens of cents per minute to several francs. These premium-rate numbers may therefore inflate your telephone bill. Caution is advised.
During trips abroad, using your mobile phone to make or receive calls, to send or receive text (SMS) or media (MMS) messages, or to access the internet could cost you dearly.
Are you shocked by the amount on your mobile telephone bill? Sending and receiving premium-rate SMS or MMS messages might be the cause!
Services such as train timetables, sports information, games or downloading logos or ring tones are more expensive than messages to a friend or your parents.
You received a missed call alert on your mobile telephone from an unknown number. When you called back, an answering machine told you that you had won a prize and invited you to send personal data. What's it all about? We can help you to find out and give you some advice to avoid some pitfalls.
Have you received unsolicited advertising by e-mail, fax, SMS or from automatic calling equipment? Has someone asked you for confidential information by e-mail? Then you are a victim of spamming. Mass sending of advertising without the recipient's consent is banned. You can limit spamming by following a few simple rules and exercising caution.
The intense competition generated by the liberalisation of the telecommunications market has encouraged some service providers to opt for methods which are occasionally aggressive to win new customers. The information provided here deals with the risks associated with these practices.
No-one likes it when the telephone rings in the evening and someone wants to convince you to change your provider, take out some new insurance or buy different products. You can take various measures to reduce such calls to a minimum. However, in Switzerland there is no absolute protection from all forms of telephone marketing.
Do you have a problem with your operator or a premium-rate 0900 type number? Have you already tried to seek a solution with the other party, without success? You can turn to the telecommunications dispute resolution service; its job is to try to resolve disputes between customers and telecommunications or value-added service providers.
When moving house, telephone customers can keep their old telephone number, even if moving to a different region. However, it is a pre-condition that their provider supports porting of the telephone number.
