UPC, Swisscom or init7
 

Have been a very loyal Swisscom member but their prices are very high.
Now that UPC, Salt are available, wondering if I should switch.
Not very keen on SALT because of customer service feedback.
Wondering if anyone has made the switch from Swisscom and can give feedback?
Don't use the TV. Mainly internet as well as the personal mobile phone.

Re: UPC, Swisscom or init7
 

For UPC you will need an UPC cable TV connection. Does your apartment/house have one cable TV connection, and is it provided by UPC?

Swisscom and init7 are both either through the good old telephone line using DSL or, if available, Fiber to the Home (FTTH).

Cable TV and DSL might come with additional basic connection fees which results in a higher monthly costs than advertised. In case of cable TV this might be sneakingly hidden in your auxiliary bill. You can get rid of the cable TV connection fee if you do not use the cable TV socket for TV, Radio, or Internet and get the socket sealed by the cable TV company. Be sure how much you actually pay and how you can get rid of hidden fees for things you do not use.

If you have FTTH I would go with that as it is symmetric (same upload and download speed). Provider? If you just need bare internet and it has to be fast init7 seams to be quite good.

Re: UPC, Swisscom or init7
 

Init7 is by far the best choice.

Re: UPC, Swisscom or init7
 

It might help to know how you reached this decision. Have you used all 3 for example??

Re: UPC, Swisscom or init7
 

As a newcomer to Switzerland that wanted a fast internet connection I plumped for Init7 after looking at all the above.

It's not their full fat fibre connection but their Copper 7 offer as i live in the burbs of Basel. But since Init7 don't speed-cap their subscriptions or run traffic management it's over three times as fast as the equivalent Swisscom 100Mpps offer. It's also been rock solid bar one outage that was communicated to impacted customers well and only lasted a few hours.

Coming from the UK recently I knew to just accept that pricing for internet access is different here but the Swisscom prices just gave me pause for thought so I looked at alternatives.

Re: UPC, Swisscom or init7
 

I have dealt with most of the ISP, privately and professionally. I had good and bad experiences with all of them (Salt - mainly bad). Recently we moved to a new apartment and I took the opportunity to research who else is out there. Found interxs.ch, researched them and finally decided to choose them as a ISP.

Currently using their Pay As You Go option and for 3 months have been very happy with them. They are using Swisscom’s infrastructure. The service was activated in much shorter time than advertised which was a nice surprise.

The tech support is great and very responsive. Contacted them couple of times and always responded always withing minutes. Once for settings on my own router and another time for a general question.

I love the Pay As You Go option as you are not hooked for 12 or 24 months. The same quality and service, but without a permanent contract and can be terminated on a monthly basis. If you have your own router/modem you can use it. Here is my Personal Referring Code: 96R-CDB, which gives you (and me :msnblush:) a month of free internet (you pay the first two and then the third is free). Cheers!

Re: UPC, Swisscom or init7
 

Is this disinformation? If you have copper, then you will be using swisscom-owned lines anyway, there is no alternative to that. So IMO it is also impossible that on copper you will have a "faster line" with (a third party subcontractor like) init7 or any other provider, that is, a speed that swisscom does not offer themselves.

Seems to be a lot of hardcore-init7 fanboys out there, promoting that provider over the top, regardless of his offers, that just range in the same area like other (subcontractor) providers in terms of speed.

Re: UPC, Swisscom or init7
 

No fanboying from me. No disinformation either. Just did the research.

Yes, it’s based on Swisscom infrastructure. Yes, init7 provides a faster service than the equivalent Swisscom service as they don’t limit line speed.

Swisscom offers a 100Mbps service to my address. Init7 offer a copper service that runs as fast as the line can. So for some it can make large difference. In my case that difference is marked as we get just under 400Mbps over Ethernet.

Re: UPC, Swisscom or init7
 

Moved from Swisscom to SALT about 5 years ago on a SIM only deal. Reason for the switch was to save money. Ended up with a much better package, roaming etc for about CHF500 saving per annum. Unlike others have never had any issue with the customer service.

Re: UPC, Swisscom or init7
 

Simply not true. Swisscom itself, its discounter Wingo also offer "best speed available on copper". And I'm pretty sure other provider do also, as all of them simply rent the line from Swisscom.
If you're forced on copper IMO init7 barely makes sense, as other provider likely offer the same "best effort" at a better price in one of the several "special offers".
You seem to be another of their victims in believing their mouthy claims of "advantages", like their urban legend that they would offer a "dedicated line" on fiber.

Re: UPC, Swisscom or init7
 

At some point in the transmission you are handed over to the init7 network and infrastructure. This can actually be as soon as when your copper lines comes into the exchange. It is theoretically possible that init7 has its own hardware and and DSL modems in the local exchange.
http://www.news.admin.ch/NSBSubscrib...hments/864.pdf

In the past the provider actually must had its own hardware as Swisscom refused to offer a bit stream access.

Not urban legend but exactly how, at least the züri.net, fiber network operates.

Re: UPC, Swisscom or init7
 

It is an urban legend. "Dedicated line"'s original meaning is to have a line that guarantees for 99% or the like of time to provide full throughput of the promised bandwidth. A truly expensive service for businesses etc.. None of the usual consumer subscriptions of any provider operating on the fiber networks of the cities like Zürich, Basel, Bern etc. do provide this. They are just "best effort" like everyone else including init7.
A bad joke at best.

Re: UPC, Swisscom or init7
 

reminds me of the UK ISP days when in-the-know ISPs and users would look at the contention ratios in addition to the headline max speeds offered.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contention_ratio

Re: UPC, Swisscom or init7
 

UPC has a shared cable medium and terrible uploads speed, not even mentioning terrible peerings.

Overall a mess.

Swisscom is expensive, limited on the options you can get for speed.

Init7 has state of the art network, with people that know what they are doing, super flexible and the best peering agreements.

It's not a hard decision.

Also mentioning iway in case you still want something good.

Re: UPC, Swisscom or init7
 

Another vote for init7. Had them for 2 years now, absolutely 0 issues, crazy responsive customer service (I needed to know the public IP range for something for work... super technical and not common request at all, they had me sorted in under 10 minutes).
Speed is always top-notch, you can bring your own router if you like.
They also quoted that it would take ~2 weeks to set up the connection but had it done in 3 days. Frickin' awesome.

It's so robust that if I'm on a video call and there's complaints of a slow connection from the service, or other people's video is stuttering, I *know* it can't possibly be me. That's more than I can say for my colleagues with other service providers.

To clarify, I have init7 fiber which is amazing. I've had UPC/Cablecom cable before which was just an absolute frickin' nightmare and would drop all packets for 1-2 seconds every minute (despite many calls with customer support and replacing the router multiple times), inconsistent speeds, and generally awful experience. Afterwards I had greenCH VDSL, which was fine but kind of slow.

Re: UPC, Swisscom or init7
 

Is it true you need Apple TV or Android TV in order to use init7 (For TV that is included for free)?

Re: UPC, Swisscom or init7
 

Erm, no they don't. Swisscom offer S, M and L internet with defined max line speeds.

L is fibre appropriate with a 10Gbit/s max download speed, M is presumably for those like myself on a half decent DSL connection with a 200 Mbit/s max download speed. S has an even lower cap.

As others have noted some ISPs also do more than just rent lines from Swisscom and have to use their own hardware at exchanges etc. so it's perfectly feasible to get different offers to the same address.

If I'm being taken for a ride then it's a very comfy one as the service remains good. I'll be sure to come crying to you the moment it all goes wrong so you can say I told you so :D

Re: UPC, Swisscom or init7
 

For the TV service yes. We've got it on an Apple TV unit and it's pretty decent for a free/bundled offer. It doesn't have the control of some others but since you don't pay for it little to moan about.

Re: UPC, Swisscom or init7
 

FWIW, called Swisscom to cancel our service to switch to Init7 - they proceeded to entice us with a 50% reduction for a year if we agreed to stay for 24 months. 800 CHF savings over those 2 years compared to what we were paying to remain, no price difference over 24 months had we switched to Init7

Will look into options in 2 years I guess

Re: UPC, Swisscom or init7
 

With respect, just BS. Wingo is Swisscom, and offers "best available speed" if you are (physically) forced on copper. https://www.wingo.ch/de/internet
Swisscom S/M/L is not connected stringently to one of both technologies copper or fiber. If you take L, but are restricted to copper, you'll get best speed available. Also if it does barely make sense on costs side. It's that simple. And since also init7 of course is no magician, they'll not be able to offer something superior in speed that swisscom does not already provide.

Init7 is the perfect match for true believers. Like you? Init7 indeed has some success in insinuating to be offering something exceptional, like its repeatedly alleged "superior peering", that no one can properly ascertain. If you look at it by light, for those with open eyes, they might realize that the offer is just +/- the same like those of all other providers. And init7's "best bang for the buck" has long since gone, several others, shall i mention SALT Fiber?, are more competitive.
For the init7 fanboys, all is left is their delusional certainity to have subscribed to an "exceptional" provider. Stick on that, if you feel a need for it.