My experience: How to get the cheapest internet and unlimited data in Switzerland?

I like to travel and sometimes visit destinations other than Barcelona or Spain as such.

During March 2024, I had a trip to Switzerland, where I went to the mountains: go snowboarding, go on several hikes, enjoy relaxation in a wellness resort and generally experience the hospitality of the local people.

Internet in Switzerland can get really expensive - how to get cheap unlimited data?

But I don't want to write about that today in connection with Switzerland. 

I want to look at a topic that I was interested in before I left, and which - I believe - will be of interest to many other people as well: how is internet and mobile data in switzerland? Or how to get the cheapest plan for mobile data when you are on summer or winter vacation in Switzerland? 

Why does the internet in Switzerland need to be addressed?

Unlike most European countries, Switzerland is not part of the European Union. Because of this, you cannot use it internet and mobile data in roaming as in Barcelona (i.e. included in the price of your existing tariff).

In practice, this means that to use the internet and mobile data in Switzerland you will need to:

• pay absurdly high fees for transferred data
• have any from special tariffs from your operator

Everything depends on the specific tariff and services used by your mobile operator (O2, T-Mobile, Vodafone,...).

Therefore, I strongly recommend that you find out how much it will cost you to use mobile data in this country before traveling to Switzerland. 

Before you travel, find out how much your operator charges for data in Switzerland

Internet in Switzerland: the basics you need to know

Even though Switzerland is a mountainous country, most places, even outside the big cities, are well covered by a mobile signal and thus the internet. He is fast and reliable here. 

Thanks to the speed of mobile data, so you can use the internet as you are used to from your home country: you can watch videos on Youtube, movies on Netflix or use all kinds of chat applications such as Whatsapp, Instagram or Messenger. 

If you used the internet in Switzerland as usual with your standard tariff, it would cost you a LOT! 

Example: How much does O2 charge for data in Switzerland?

My home operator O2 sent me this SMS after crossing the border regarding service prices: 

"Welcome to Switzerland! Calls to the Czech Republic, EU countries and the rest of Europe CZK 42,35/min., SMS CZK 12,10, incoming calls CZK 24,20/min. We wish you a pleasant stay. Your O2"

As can be seen there is absolutely no information about the price mobile data and internet in Switzerland. 

In order to find out the price, you have to proactively find it yourself on their website (better option), or start using mobile data in Switzerland (worse option). 

In the case of O2, the price is CZK 3,90 per 1 MB. 

Sure, the price doesn't seem high at first glance, but don't be fooled - you'll easily use up 1 MB if you open 1 web page, send someone 1 photo or listen to 1 short song. If you were to watch 1 movie, you can easily use up 1 MB in a day, which at the given price would mean a whopping 3 CZK for using the Internet that day. 

While with the Czech O2 the data works automatically for the above mentioned (and of course meaningless) prices, with other operators such as Vodafone or T-mobile you do not have any mobile data in Switzerland by default and you have to activate some of the packages. And these packages are not cheap either. 

How to get out of the whole situation?

Get a local data plan. It's easier and, above all, cheaper than you might expect. 

Internet data plan in Switzerland

The first option is buy a local SIM card upon arrival or arrival in Switzerland (or have it sent home before departure).

Comparison: Classic SIM card, micro SIM card, nano SIM card and eSIM card in the form of a QR code (I chose this when traveling to Switzerland)

I immediately rejected this possibility, because my phone only supports one physical SIM card (and I wanted to be available on my number too) and I would also waste my time looking for a store to buy one. 

The second option, which I ended up using, was the purchase of an eSIM card.

It has several advantages over the plastic one: 

• The eSIM can be in the phone alongside the standard SIM card
• you can use both numbers at once
• you don't have to physically put anything into the phone, it's uploaded there "via the Internet"
• you can buy the card online in no time 

So, on the recommendation of friends, I still have it bought before the trip eSIM card from Digital Republic, which is the largest Swiss provider of mobile internet precisely through electronic SIM cards. 

When I first looked at their website, I liked the prices for mobile internet. Judge for yourself. 

Individual Internet tariffs from Digital Republic: I pay 6 CHF/month for unlimited data

For the lowest monthly tariff with unlimited internet, you pay only CHF 4 (ie a little over CZK 100). Quite a difference if you compare it to the prices your own operator would charge, right? 

In the end, I chose the named one from the available tariff data Flat 1, because I mainly wanted to be connected to the Internet to use social networks, send messages and photos. The speed of 1 Mbit was a bit on the edge for these needs, but since I only used data in Switzerland for 4 days, I gave it a try. 

What other internet options do you have in Switzerland if you don't want to buy a physical SIM card?

Of course, you have other options if you want to date in Switzerland. Some of them are Airalo, the world's favorite eSIM card provider. The one for internet in Switzerland offers a data plan under the Pilatus Mobile brand from operator Salt Mobile (Orange). However, the downside is the data limits on all available tariffs, and you will also pay slightly more for data in total than with Digital Republic.  

What is my experience with Digital Republic's eSIM card and plan? 

Personally, I can only recommend this internet to Switzerland - otherwise I wouldn't be writing this article :-) 

It is clearly the biggest positive of the whole service flexibility and speed, with which everything can be handled. 

If your phone supports eSIM technology, literally with a few clicks you can arrange a Swiss phone number that you can use for data or calls. 

I also like that you can conveniently manage the entire service from a simple customer portal.

On this page you will find all the information needed to process the eSIM, its activation (they will guide you through the process step by step), everything related to the available services or perhaps a link to customer support (I also tried it here and it works really fast and well - I accidentally added voice plan that I needed to remove). 

I really like the price which seems really low compared to the competition.

The tariff price is final - you pay no activation or settlement fees. 

The risk to you is also minimized by the fact that you pay nothing upfront – is always paid after the end of the monthly cycle. 

You can terminate the tariff at any time. I only used the internet in Switzerland for 4 days (even so, it paid off for me). I then set it to not renew so I only paid for one month. 

I believe that this information will help a lot of people - if I had personally known about it, I could have saved a lot of money on the internet during my previous visits to Switzerland and also not had to limit myself in using it...