The purpose of the universal service is to guarantee that a basic telecommunications services offering is made available to all categories of the population and in all the regions of the country. These services must be affordable, reliable and must be of a certain quality. The universal service includes the public telephone service, broadband internet connections and the provision of special services for the disabled.
The universal service licence
On 15 May 2023, ComCom designated Swisscom as the holder of the universal service licence for the next period. This document lays down the obligations of the universal service licensee.
With regard to internet access, the minimum data transfer rate is 10/1 Mbit/s from 1 January 2020 onwards. From 2024, there will be an additional service with a specified transmission rate of 80/8 Mbit/s.
Every household can benefit of two entries in the subscriber directory.
In addition to SMS transcription and relay services, and voice access to directory services, the hearing-impaired also benefit from a sign-language relay service for conversations via video telephony.
Future universal service licence
Last modification 01.06.2023