Swisscom Keeps 4.3 Million Customers Connected

To protect its customers against the growing landscape of cybersecurity threats, Swisscom adopted Akamai SIA Consumer solution to flag suspicious activities that could leave them vulnerable to malware and phishing attempts. The service has strengthened Swisscom’s reputation for reliability and security and gives it a competitive edge while keeping customers safe.

As Switzerland’s market leader in broadband and mobile connectivity, the company holds more than 60% market share, with 1.8 million broadband customers and 2.5 million mobile subscribers. Like other people all around the world, Swisscom’s customers increasingly rely on the internet to support their daily lives, whether they’re shopping, working, studying, or connecting with family and friends.

“The Internet is like water or electricity — people expect it to be available without interruption. That has never been more true than during the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Axel Homburger, Product Manager, Home Network and Residential Security at Swisscom. “Swisscom has the advantage of having the fastest, most reliable network in Switzerland, and we are continually innovating to keep it that way.”

When matched against its competitors, Swisscom wins the reliability contest, giving customers mobile and fixed line access they can count on. But in an increasingly competitive industry, smaller telcos are using lower prices to lure customers away — and that puts a lot of pressure on Swisscom. To protect its customer base and grow its market share, Swisscom is always looking for ways to add value, not only providing reliable internet access but helping customers get the most out of their subscriptions and keeping them safe online.

Delivering new value to customers is Homburger’s area of expertise. As Product Manager and Business Owner for Swisscom’s residential security products, he looks for opportunities to make customers safer online — helping to protect their identities, devices, and data. That includes everything from privacy controls and the ability to block unsolicited calls to antivirus protection and cyber insurance.

“Cyber security threats are a growing concern for everyone, as malware, phishing, and identity theft attempts proliferate,” Homburger says. “At Swisscom, we strive to be a trusted companion for our customers in the digital world.”

Keeping customers safe is the highest priority for Swisscom. That’s why, a few years ago, the telco jumped on the opportunity to offer a new service called Internet Guard — a warning system to help customers avoid dangerous websites. The service is based on Akamai SIA Consumer and SIA ThreatAvert products to flag potentially malicious sites.

“When a customer encounters a site that could be unsafe, we throw up a splash page with a warning — encouraging them to think twice before proceeding,” says Homburger. “We’ve seen only 5% of customers continue through to suspicious sites, which speaks highly to the level of trust customers have for Swisscom — and how valuable the Akamai capabilities are.”

Within the first nine months, Internet Guard detected 18 million potential phishing attempts and 7 million instances of malware. And the warnings worked — 95% of customers abandoned suspicious sites. Those numbers are a powerful testament to how much safer customers are when using Swisscom to surf the web, especially when so many shopping and banking transactions have moved online. Homburger suspects there are fewer infected devices on the Swisscom network as a result, which means everyone is less exposed. Of course, that level of protection is good for the Swisscom brand as well, strengthening its reputation for reliability, trustworthiness, and security. It’s a powerful way to prevent customer churn and boost Net Promoter Scores — counteracting competitors’ attempts to capture market share.

Not only was Swisscom the first to launch this type of service in Switzerland, but it is also the only telco to include it with every subscription, free of charge. That means millions of customers automatically gain an extra layer of protection against phishing, fraud, bots, and malware on all their devices — simply by being Swisscom subscribers. No setup required. In fact, it didn’t require much setup for Swisscom itself to launch Internet Guard, which was one of the reasons it was such an easy decision to work with Akamai.

“There was very little effort involved with implementing SIA Consumer and SIA ThreatAvert,” says Homburger. “Akamai simply switched on a module within our DNS environment, and it worked.”

Managing the Internet Guard service continued to be hassle-free after the initial implementation. Swisscom pulls data from the Akamai products into its visualization and reporting tool so it can monitor what’s happening on the network, including the number of warnings triggered, whether they are malware or phishing attempts, and how customers react to the warnings. And if the company needs any support, it can rely on Akamai.

“Swisscom has always had very good support from Akamai,” Homburger says. “As a major telco provider, we find it very valuable to have a single vendor for multiple products, especially one that is so well known and trusted in the marketplace.”

Being able to rely on Akamai has enabled Swisscom, in turn, to deliver reliable, secure internet access to its own customers. And that gives the company the confidence to keep innovating for people across Switzerland, whether they’re surfing, paying bills, or ordering tonight’s dinner. No matter what, they can count on Swisscom to keep things up and running — just like water from the tap.

Swisscom is the leading provider of communication, IT and entertainment in Switzerland. Outside of Switzerland, Swisscom operates Fastweb in Italy. Swisscom has more than 19,000 employees and is one of the most innovative and sustainable companies in Switzerland. www.swisscom.ch