Broadband benchmark 2022: who currently offers the best internet experience in Switzerland?

1. Broadband benchmark 2022: who currently offers the best internet experience in Switzerland?
2. Broadband benchmark 2022: test results Switzerland
3. Broadband benchmark 2022: This is how we tested it

Hop Schwiiz! Whereby? Apparently, the Swiss network operators do not need such additional motivational aids. As in mobile communications, the Swiss have been claiming a leading role in the expansion of fixed networks for years, especially within the DACH region. Rightly so.

Example fiber optic availability: According to the Statista market researchers, the proportion was already at the end of 2021 FTTH/FTTB connections at respectable 24.6 percent. Compared to Austria (5.69%) and Germany (7.11%), these are almost paradisiacal conditions. And: The nationwide and regionally relevant network operators already offer super-fast 10 Gbit/s access across the board.

Even if by no means all of the 3.9 million Swiss households can take advantage of these offers and only some of these nominal maximum speeds can actually be used at home anyway, this top value shows that competition among network operators works in Switzerland. This activity, in turn, meets with the approval of the users.

The advances in broadband expansion and the high level of performance obviously mean that users – despite an equally excellent mobile phone infrastructure – cannot or do not want to do without fixed network access at home. That Swiss Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) goes from over four million broadband internet customers from (as of the end of 2020).

According to their statistics, Switzerland still dominates xDSL (approx. 2 million accesses) as a technology ahead of broadband cable and fiber optics, each with around one million fixed network connections.

In our broadband benchmark, it is the overall performance that counts from the user’s point of view

But which Internet services actually reach the user at the end of the day? Our test partner umlaut investigated this question. Their proven test and analysis procedures do not differentiate between the different access technologies. The broadband benchmark examines the Internet experience at home from the user’s point of view.

Among the tested test parameters (KPIs, Khey Pperformance Indicators) include the data rates, which the user actually received in his Wi-Fi network with his plan. In addition, umlaut uses actively initiated measurements to determine how high the runtimes were and what data rates in the Download and for the first time also in upload direction could be used at home in the respective overall constellation.

These active Speed ​​and runtime test have an even higher priority in the evaluation this time than before. With good reason: they provide information about the Internet performance that was available on the Wi-Fi networks at all during the six-month test period.

More than 5.9 million measurement samples form a solid database for the broadband benchmark

For the evaluation umlaut has the determined data from March 14th to August 28th (calendar weeks 11 to 34) are used. All regional Internet providers (Iinternet Sservice Provider, ISPs) were included in total 96,651 stationary broadband connections checked and analyzed over 5.9 million measurement samples.

The internationally established test and analysis procedure can draw on a comparatively large number of landline connections, which are also widely distributed, for a realistic assessment of the overall Internet performance (crowd sourced) and thus gain meaningful insights.

In order to take account of technological developments and the ongoing network expansion, umlaut adjusts the rules of its benchmark procedure (framework) year after year. This time, this also included the fact that some of the established KPIs such as runtimes and data rates were subject to higher requirements.

In addition to the active measurements of the upload data rates, the determination of stability has also been added to the test program. This new KPI provides information about the success rates of the connection tests, the active speed tests and also the website views.

Detailed information on the test procedure and the evaluation

Searched in Switzerland and the most populous cantons: The best Internet from the user’s point of view

Our nationwide evaluation shows which one Overall internet experience users have received from the two leading network operators in terms of market share, Sunrise and Swisscom. The original plan was to also include Salt, which is represented nationwide in at least many urban areas, in the overall national rating.

However, Salt’s significantly lower market share was also reflected in the number of measurement samples and connections examined. In Switzerland, the share moved from Salt relative to the national totals in an area between 2 and 3 percent. Accordingly, the number of cases determined was classified as too low, so that this time Salt could not be taken into account from the nationwide evaluation.

What applies to Salt throughout Switzerland also applies, at least in part, to Sunrise and/or Swisscom in less populated cantons. Therefore, as in the previous year, we have based the regional evaluation on the ten most populous cantons limited. Here we name – provided there are sufficient numbers of cases – the best in each test.

The data rates determined in our broadband benchmark make it clear that the 10 Gbit/s Internet access mentioned at the beginning is not available everywhere in Switzerland. Apart from that, by no means every household needs the highest data rates that the fixed network can provide to end customers.

Anyone who chooses a tariff subscription with lower monthly fees and can get by with lower performance can find out in our separate reliability analysis which network operator is best at providing the basic Internet services required for e-mail, Internet surfing, online shopping and HD Video streaming suffices, performs best.