Swiss telecoms players weather economic storm
Two of Switzerland's leading telecoms firms, Swisscom and Sunrise, have both reported strong results for the first half of 2009.
Swisscom – the country’s biggest telecoms group and majority-owned by the government – and Sunrise announced SFr1.02 billion ($940 million) and SFr76 million net profit respectively.
Swisscom closed the first half of the year with a 1.2 per cent fall in net revenue to SFr5.9 billion compared with the same period in 2008.
Revenue at Sunrise increased by 6.4 per cent to SFr974 million.
Bern-based Swisscom said a SFr200 million drop in revenue due to lower prices caused by regulatory measures and increased competition was offset by a 12.9 per cent revenue increase by its Italian broadband subsidiary, Fastweb.
It also saw growth in its mobile phone and digital television services.
Sunrise saw its customer base increase by nearly three per cent in the first six months of 2009, which it said was “accelerated by innovative mobile communications offers”. It said these were flat rate subscriptions, sales of SIM card only phones and bundled services that include free internet access.
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