Switzerland - Fixed telephone subscriptions

The value for Fixed telephone subscriptions in Switzerland was 3,071,296 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 5,387,568 in 2002 and a minimum value of 1,090,975 in 1960.

Definition: Fixed telephone subscriptions refers to the sum of active number of analogue fixed telephone lines, voice-over-IP (VoIP) subscriptions, fixed wireless local loop (WLL) subscriptions, ISDN voice-channel equivalents and fixed public payphones.

Source: International Telecommunication Union, World Telecommunication/ICT Development Report and database.

See also:

Year Value
1960 1,090,975
1961 1,090,980
1962 1,090,980
1963 1,090,980
1964 1,090,980
1965 1,466,000
1966 1,466,000
1967 1,466,000
1968 1,466,000
1969 1,466,000
1970 1,945,000
1971 1,945,000
1972 1,945,000
1973 1,945,000
1974 1,945,000
1975 2,470,000
1976 2,523,000
1977 2,599,000
1978 2,677,000
1979 2,755,000
1980 2,839,000
1981 2,925,000
1982 3,010,000
1983 3,095,057
1984 3,184,401
1985 3,277,026
1986 3,381,492
1987 3,499,609
1988 3,632,765
1989 3,784,506
1990 3,942,701
1991 4,080,651
1992 4,184,841
1993 4,265,818
1994 4,257,596
1995 4,480,000
1996 4,571,000
1997 4,688,000
1998 4,884,000
1999 5,066,000
2000 5,235,733
2001 5,383,483
2002 5,387,568
2003 5,323,452
2004 5,253,450
2005 5,149,736
2006 5,021,743
2007 4,927,184
2008 4,827,882
2009 5,131,810
2010 4,907,773
2011 4,898,770
2012 4,721,981
2013 4,593,321
2014 4,374,700
2015 4,140,000
2016 3,772,545
2017 3,559,361
2018 3,331,277
2019 3,171,158
2020 3,071,296

Development Relevance: The quality of an economy's infrastructure, including power and communications, is an important element in investment decisions for both domestic and foreign investors. Government effort alone is not enough to meet the need for investments in modern infrastructure; public-private partnerships, especially those involving local providers and financiers, are critical for lowering costs and delivering value for money. In telecommunications, competition in the marketplace, along with sound regulation, is lowering costs, improving quality, and easing access to services around the globe. Access to telecommunication services rose on an unprecedented scale over the past two decades. This growth was driven primarily by wireless technologies and liberalization of telecommunications markets, which have enabled faster and less costly network rollout. Fixed telephone lines are those that connect a subscriber's terminal equipment to the public switched telephone network and that have a port on a telephone exchange. This term is synonymous with the term main station or Direct Exchange Line (DEL) that is commonly used in telecommunication documents. Integrated services digital network channels and fixed wireless subscribers are included. A fixed line also refers to a phone which uses a solid medium telephone line such as a metal wire or fiber optic cable for transmission as distinguished from a mobile cellular line which uses radio waves for transmission. Over the past decade new financing and technology, along with privatization and market liberalization, have spurred dramatic growth in telecommunications in many countries. With the rapid development of mobile telephony and the global expansion of the Internet, information and communication technologies are increasingly recognized as essential tools of development, contributing to global integration and enhancing public sector effectiveness, efficiency, and transparency.

Limitations and Exceptions: Operators have traditionally been the main source of telecommunications data, so information on subscriptions has been widely available for most countries. This gives a general idea of access, but a more precise measure is the penetration rate - the share of households with access to telecommunications. During the past few years more information on information and communication technology use has become available from household and business surveys. Also important are data on actual use of telecommunications services. Ideally, statistics on telecommunications (and other information and communications technologies) should be compiled for all three measures: subscriptions, access, and use. The quality of data varies among reporting countries as a result of differences in regulations covering data provision and availability. Discrepancies between global and national figures may arise when countries use a different definition than the one used by ITU. For example, some countries do not include the number of ISDN channels when calculating the number of fixed telephone lines. Discrepancies may also arise in cases where the end of a fiscal year differs from that used by ITU, which is the end of December of every year. A number of countries have fiscal years that end in March or June of every year. Data are usually not adjusted but discrepancies in the definition, reference year or the break in comparability in between years are noted in a data note. For this reason, data are not always strictly comparable. Missing values are estimated by ITU.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: A fixed telephone line (previously called main telephone line in operation) is an active line connecting the subscriber's terminal equipment to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and which has a dedicated port in the telephone exchange equipment. This term is synonymous with the terms main station or Direct Exchange Line (DEL) that are commonly used in telecommunication documents. It may not be the same as an access line or a subscriber. This should include the active number of analog fixed telephone lines, ISDN channels, fixed wireless, public payphones and VoIP subscriptions. Active lines are those that have registered an activity in the past three months. Data on fixed telephone lines are derived using administrative data that countries (usually the regulatory telecommunication authority or the Ministry in charge of telecommunications) regularly, and at least annually, collect from telecommunications operators. Data are considered to be very reliable, timely, and complete. Data for this indicator are readily available for approximately 90 percent of countries, either through ITU's World Telecommunication Indicators questionnaires or from official information available on the Ministry or Regulator's website. For the rest, information can be aggregated through operators' data (mainly through annual reports) and complemented by market research reports. For additional/latest information on sources and country notes, please also refer to: https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/stat/default.aspx

Aggregation method: Sum

Periodicity: Annual

General Comments: Please cite the International Telecommunication Union for third-party use of these data.

Classification

Topic: Infrastructure Indicators

Sub-Topic: Communications