In future, a practicable and appropriate universal fee will fund the public service in radio and television. This is proposed in the Federal Council Message on partial revision of the Radio and Television Act (RTVA) which it submitted to parliament today. The new universal fee will – with exceptions – be paid by all households and businesses; it will replace the current reception fee and will be somewhat lower. The switch to the new universal fee was generally welcomed in the consultation process. In addition, the model provides for greater flexibility and a simpler licensing procedure for private radio and television stations.

From 2014, the SRG SSR will offer the international Italian-speaking public a new audio-visual service on the internet. The Federal Council will accordingly increase the SRG SSR service level agreement which supports its media activities abroad. The Confederation will fund 50% of these services.

The telecommunications statistics 2011 present the results for the fourteenth year of a liberalized telecommunications market in Switzerland. Notable developments include: Continued growth in broadband connections in Switzerland (over 97.7% of internet users have a broadband connection).
The total duration of calls established from the fixed and mobile network decreased by 1.4%.

The obligation to broadcast certain television programme services (must-carry channels) in the analogue services on cable networks is being phased out. Because the vast majority of the Swiss population use digital services, the broadcasting obligation will be limited to digital services from 2015. The amended Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC) Ordinance enters into force on 1 June 2013.

The 2012 annual report indicates the additional tasks which OFCOM has taken on: as the new office for the postal sector it decides, for example, which press titles should be entitled to discounted transportation rates. This activity offers good conditions for the development of the media support concept, which OFCOM prepared on behalf of the Federal Council. In the same year, the auction of all mobile radio frequencies was concluded by the Federal Communications Commission (ComCom); OFCOM made the technical preparations. In this way, telecommunications service providers should have the opportunity to plan mobile service coverage in Switzerland and provide high-speed mobile broadband networks, too. Finally, OFCOM participated in the development of a guide to facilitate the development of high-speed telecommunications networks.

By the spring of 2015, the sovereign task of Registry operator for .ch internet domain names could be separated from direct contact with users who wish to reserve .ch internet domain names. Currently the two activities are performed by Switch. However, its mandate will expire at the end of March 2015. The Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) is taking this opportunity to review the legal framework governing these issues.