Swiss commission does not want a fixed roaming price cap
In contrast to the House of Representatives, the responsible committee of the Senate says ‘no’ to a fixed price cap for roaming charges. Switzerland must coordinate internationally, it argues.
This content was published on
3 minutes
Keystone-SDA/amva
The Commission for Transport and Telecommunications of the Senate proposes to reject a corresponding motion by parliamentarian Elisabeth Schneider-Schneiter, as announced on Tuesday. In May, the motion had been adopted by 116 votes to 68 with 4 abstentions.
The motion demands that the Federal Council introduce an upper limit for roaming charges. According to the press release, the Senate committee agrees with the Federal Council that according to the current Telecommunications Act, price ceilings can be set based on international agreements. However, a unilateral decision by the Federal Council is not desirable.
Difficult fight against charges
Similar proposals to abolish excessive roaming charges had already failed several times in parliament. Earlier this year, communications minister, Albert Rösti, said that the Federal Council could not simply set a unilateral cap by decree. This was confirmed by an expert opinion. Moreover, without an international agreement, foreign providers would not have to comply with Swiss rules.
The Foundation for Consumer Protection repeatedly warns against high roaming charges. It is true that new customers of telecom providers have had to set their own limits for data roaming since summer 2021 according to a new regulation. Nevertheless, customers still run the risk of returning from their holidays with high bills.
The situation is different in the European Union (EU), where customers benefited from the removal of roaming charges. Negotiators of the EU states and the European Parliament agreed at the end of 2021 to extend the popular rules until summer 2032. This means that people can continue to make phone calls, surf the internet or write text messages with their mobile phones while travelling at the same cost as at home.
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate them into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
Pro-Palestine uni protests to be debated in Swiss parliament
This content was published on
The Swiss People’s Party says it will launch two postulates calling for clarifications about the recent student protests and occupations.
This content was published on
A 36-year-old man from Ticino lost his life on Saturday in Val Malvaglia, in the north of canton Ticino, during a wingsuit jump from a plane.
Swiss Evangelical Reformed Church numbers dropping in French-speaking Switzerland
This content was published on
As in German-speaking Switzerland, the number of members of the Reformed Church in French-speaking Switzerland is also declining.
Gotthard traffic queue hits 20km during holiday weekend
This content was published on
The traffic jam at the Gotthard north portal reached a length of 20 kilometres on the motorway between canton Nidwalden and canton Uri.
Swiss Interior Minister visits Cannes Film Festival
This content was published on
Swiss Interior Minister left the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday after three days of intensive dialogue, meetings and film screenings.
Swiss theatre director breaks with tradition at Vienna’s Rathausplatz
This content was published on
With the proclamation of the "Free Republic of Vienna", the start of the festival on Friday evening was unusually political.
Consumer watchdog urges government to cap mobile roaming charges
This content was published on
“Put simply, roaming tariffs in Switzerland are exorbitantly expensive. They are cash cows for telecom providers,” Sara Stalder, head of the Swiss Consumer Protection FoundationExternal link, told Swiss public television SRFExternal link on Friday. The foundation said that Swiss consumers had to pay up to 975 times the standard fee for internet surfing abroad on…
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.