Satellite internet struggles to gain ground in Switzerland

Satellite internet is improving rapidly but remains a niche service in Switzerland, where extensive mobile and fibre-optic networks make it difficult for new providers to compete, SRF reports.

Only a few thousand people in Switzerland subscribe to satellite internet, most of them seeking coverage in remote places such as mountain huts. Subscriber numbers have doubled each year recently, but from a low base.

René Dönni Kuoni, deputy director of the Swiss Federal Office of Communications, said satellite capacity was growing as more satellites entered service and orbited closer to Earth. Providers that want to use radio frequencies in Switzerland must obtain a licence from the federal government. The office granted one to market leader Starlink three years ago.

Most current satellite services require a dish. Direct satellite connections to mobile phones are not yet available in Europe, and would require governments to coordinate frequencies to prevent interference with terrestrial mobile networks. Dönni Kuoni expects that coordination to be achieved at next year’s World Radiocommunication Conference.

New chips and phones designed to connect through dedicated satellite frequencies are also needed. Such devices could reach the market within a few years, but satellite connections are unlikely to work reliably indoors in the foreseeable future: roofs and walls block the weak signals.

Satellite services may eventually let people connect from even the most remote locations, but Dönni Kuoni said they would not replace Switzerland’s well-developed mobile networks. For now, the service is more likely to appeal to mountaineers and Alpine farmers than to the wider public.