Sunrise has already announced price increases. More could follow, because the providers have changed their terms and conditions.
“We cannot rule out price increases in the future,” says Swisscom CEO Christoph Aeschlimann in an interview with SRF. Two days ago, competitor Sunrise announced that it would increase the prices for its mobile subscriptions by four percent from July. The brands Sunrise, Yallo, Lebara and UPC are also affected.
The Sunrise argues with inflation. It sounds similar with Christoph Aeschlimann: «Swisscom is of course confronted with the same price increases. We too have higher labor costs and higher energy costs.” The company presented quarterly figures today, Thursday, which show a slight decline in sales.
Surprised by announcement of Sunrise
Nevertheless, the Swisscom boss was surprised at an analysts’ conference at the step of the biggest competitor: “We didn’t expect that at this point in time.”
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In the coming weeks and months we will see how the market participants will react. «After more than 20 years of price reductions, we have to see whether this is a trend reversal or a one-off event. That will become apparent in the next few months, »says the Swisscom boss.
No more special right of termination
In order to be able to carry out the increases, the mobile phone providers have made things easier for themselves. So far, if the subscription price is increased during the term, the customer has a special right of termination and can withdraw from the contract prematurely.
Last month, all three major Swiss telecom providers – Swisscom, Sunrise and Salt – announced that they would change their general terms and conditions from the beginning of July. This means that the special right of termination no longer applies if the prices are adjusted for inflation.
We have to tackle that in Switzerland.
Consumer advocate Sara Stalder criticizes that the new terms and conditions restrict the rights of consumers: “We believe that you still have the right to cancel. But if you switch, you end up with a provider that has exactly the same rules. You’re helpless, and we have to tackle that in Switzerland.”
If you do not want to accept the new terms and conditions, you can cancel before they come into effect on July 1st. But finding a provider without the new conditions is likely to be difficult.