Switzerland as a nation is known as a trailblazer, having accomplished many firsts across a variety of sectors, including telecommunications. Switzerland is the world’s largest investor in telecommunications infrastructure per capita, thanks to the nation’s leading telecommunications provider, Swisscom.
Within the competitive telecommunications market, Swisscom has managed to retain its market share while expanding its operations and growing the network. Swisscom launched 5G commercially in April 2019, being the first European service provider to accomplish this feat. Nationwide population coverage with 5G wide is 90% by end of 2019.
In the business segment, Swisscom repeatedly supports the business community, and as a full-service provider is consistently expanding business services. The company’s fastest-growing segments include IT outsourcing, cloud services and security solutions.
Interview: Urs Schaeppi, CEO, Swisscom
How critical is infrastructure to national competitiveness?
We have a government that is incentivizing industry to invest, and that is why Switzerland has one of the best infrastructures in the world. The Swiss government encourages top-scale investment into the infrastructural framework to safeguard the future of Switzerland’s infrastructure as a key competitive advantage for the nation.
In a world that is becoming digitalized, the national network infrastructure is of crucial importance. It is the root of digitalization. That is why Swisscom, as the nation’s biggest IT company, invests approximately 20% of its turnover into infrastructure that can support future growth. For example, artificial intelligence, 5G and the Internet of Things are a massive opportunity for a small economy like Switzerland. It will allow the Swiss industry to innovate and to automize. Industry 4.0 has the potential to bring jobs back to countries like Switzerland that have high labor costs.
Where do you see the most growth potential for Swisscom?
While traditional telecommunications data consumption is rapidly increasing, the revenue stream is declining. Investments are rising while prices are going down. Every two years, we see data usage double, and we expect with 5G this trend will accelerate. Within this complicated situation, the most significant prospects for Swisscom’s expansion is to further develop ICT cloud platform solutions. We are a platform company, and the first platform is the infrastructure network. The second enabling layer allows Swisscom to offer innovative value-added solutions to businesses. Swisscom for 20 years has done pioneering work to support the Swiss business community. In the business customers segment, we have a strong position as a full-service provider and are expanding services. We also have a strong entertainment platform and build an ecosystem around our TV platform, and our routers are already in most Swiss homes. In addition, smart homes will be an interesting growth niche.
What is the future of 5G in Switzerland?
National telecommunication infrastructure is an essential tool to foster digitalization and foment the development of the companies of the future. Swisscom has the ambition to be a leader in 5G. The faster a network is, the more data we expect will be transmitted. It is our ambition that this connectivity will stimulate Industry 4.0 and the ecosystem. By enabling the ecosystem, we expect innovation will follow with unforeseen applications.
What is your vision for global collaboration?
The world is changing very fast, and openness is extremely important within this globalized digital world. Building ecosystems is a key factor for success. We at Swisscom target trends and are early investors. In the USA, for example, Swisscom was one of the earliest companies with an outpost in Silicon Valley. It is one of our leading global outposts. We are actively investing in technologies that we can later use within our core business.