zafaco and connect are now carrying out their acclaimed broadband and fixed network test in Switzerland for the first time. Particularly impressive is the range of powerful fibre optic deals on offer.
The tests have now been completed in all three countries: after the eleventh broadband and fixed network test in Germany this summer and careful scrutiny of Austrian networks for the second year this autumn, we are now celebrating a première in Switzerland: for the first time, we are analysing fixed network deals in this country.
To pave the way for this, our long-standing test partner zafaco set up 14 test-compliant facilities at locations in cities across Switzerland.
Methodical differences between the countries
The methodology used for the test in Switzerland is the same as the Austrian one, i.e. it concentrates on high-speed internet, web services and web TV. As high-performance mobile networks have also led to a decline in the significance of fixed network telephony in this country, voice measurements have been excluded from the test catalogue.
As a practical consequence of this, the Swiss results are not fully comparable with those from Germany. Comparisons between the two Alpine countries, i.e. between Austria and Switzerland, are certainly possible though. And they show that the fixed networks in the two countries are more or less at the same level.
Worthy of note is that the package deals currently on offer to Swiss customers—which are even better than those in Austria and far superior to ones in Germany—are already based on fast fibre optic lines. However, our measurements showed that Swiss providers are failing to reap any significant benefit from their higher quality infrastructure.
Swiss fixed networks holding out against corona
In Switzerland as well, of course, we carefully investigated whether the boom in home office, home schooling and streaming caused by the COVID-19 crisis permitted a fair and meaningful evaluation before embarking on the test. As with the two neighbouring countries, we can give the all-clear in this respect: Swiss networks are also holding out excellently against the corona crisis.
You can find the complete test in connect issue 12/2020.