Swisscom Mobile celebrates five millionth customer and 30 years on the job

Swisscom has announced the addition of its five millionth wireless customer, on the 30th anniversary of the launch of the NATEL brand. On 1 April 1978, the former PTT commissioned the country’s first mobile network under the banner NATEL A. The first digital wireless network, based on the GSM standard, was rolled out in 1993 under the name NATEL D. In 1998 Swisscom connected its millionth NATEL customer and in the years that followed the number of subscribers grew rapidly. UMTS technology was added to the NATEL network in 2004. In total, Swisscom has invested around CHF10 billion (USD9.15 billion) in its various NATEL networks, which today carry around ten million calls and seven million SMS messages on a daily basis.