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On reading Swisscom’s press release for the first half of 2020, one is immediately reassured, since it is titled “solid activities”. A closer examination of the latest figures, however, explains the revival of certain advertising campaigns …
So let’s start with the number that hurts the most. As of June 30, over one year, Swisscom lost 1.6% of its mobile connections to 6.264 million. Obviously, there is some competition in this segment … And Swisscom is struggling to defend its achievements, inherited from its history as a former monopolist.
The weak spots
It is therefore probably not without reason that the streets of Switzerland are literally lined with expensive advertising campaigns in favor of Wingo, one of the operator’s low-cost brands. A sub-label now also offered at Mobilezone to try to catch up with customers tempted to leave on the Salt or Sunrise networks …
And then there are the numbers for broadband connections. Admittedly in a market which is starting to be really saturated, Swisscom observes that it is stagnating at best, since it loses 0.1% of its 6.264 million connections. Here too, we tell ourselves that some competitors like Salt and Sunrise must continue to slowly score points.
The strong points
But there are also the strengths of Swissscom, which sometimes illustrates a certain excellence. For example, Swisscom TV continues to grow to 1.551 million subscribers, up 1.4% in one year. A significant development since UPC has just completely revised its offer, while Sunrise and Salt also have undeniable arguments …
Finally, in the long term, Fastweb seems to be showing a positive dynamic in Italy, with figures which, however, remain quite small across the country. The company thus counts 2.692 million broadband connections (+ 3.5%) and 1.830 million mobile SIMs (+18.1). In any case, all markets combined, to maintain its objectives, Swisscom drastically reduced its investments to 1.075 billion (-17.1%). And the dividend should remain unchanged at 22 francs, despite a decline in turnover to 5.44 billion (-3.9%).
Xavier Studer