Just to comment my experience for the last 2 month of using internet in the train.
I have my personal phone with a Salt abo and the one from my company with Swisscom (both unlimited). I've been testing the internet service on my daily travel between Basel and Zurich.
For my surprise the Salt connection is really much better. I have connection close to all the trip, speed is really good and stable. I can use Netflix, as example, with close to not cuts.
With the Swisscom one I get more problems. Connection comes and goes, speed is also very unstable and to use Netflix absolutely impossible.
I was thinking Swisscom was the best one of the three bigs. I was wrong.
I have the same set up (Personal Abo with Salt and Swisscom for work). In most of the border towns (Weil am Rhein, Saint Louis, Lorrach and Rheinfelden) I get 3 or 4G with Salt and if I'm lucky to get Edge with Swisscom. Elsewhere in Switzerland (urban areas) they are almost identical.
I have also been with Orange /Salt for 15 years +.
Reception is so poor where we are that the phone is unusable quite often and in the village square there is no signal. As I only use the phone when away from home, this doesn't worry me. But getting an ebanking TAN can be a hassle.
My other half and neighbours switched to Swisscom because of this. So it's the luck of the draw...
I've got a Swisscom contract and a Salt (actually Coop) PAYG and I find it's six of one and half dozen of the other.
For instance in my office at home I often get "No Service" on the Swisscom phone, but my Salt phone gets a healthy 4 bars of 3G.
The situation is reversed at work with the Salt phone being mostly unusable, but the Swisscom phone having a full 5 bars of LTE goodness
On my train commute it's about even stevens - there are some Swisscom blackouts and there are some Salt blackouts.
If you'd have asked me 5 years ago I would have said Swisscom had by far the best coverage, but these days I'd say that, all things considered, they're about equal. However, if you have to choose a network then I would suggest getting a cheap PAYG SIM from both (or from their MVNO partners) and test them in the places that you are likely to be before commiting to a contract.
I have Swisscom for TV and Internet and Salt mobile. I am thinking about moving to Swisscom for my mobile connection too, their customer service is much better. I've been over charged by salt/Orange more than once and their customer service is really not good...
I gave my Salt abo to a family member when I moved because once you're outside of the more populated areas the signal is non existent in my experience. The abo I have no with Swisscom is much more expensive than Salt but at least it works everywhere.
According to the Salt website map I should get 2G with Salt where I live and 3G just up the road but the reality is no service for miles around. Now I get Swisscom 4G with no problems.
I was also having same experience. While travelling in train internet connection with salt comes and goes. When needed no internet connection. Bad luck sometimes
I don't normally put my two cents in but I am just off the phone with Salt as I wanted to cancel my contract because I'm leaving Switzerland.
I have been with Orange/Salt for over 4 years paying CHF90 per month and they want to charge me CHF500 to cancel before the end of the subscription. I cancelled my Swisscom with no charge at all.
I switched contracts from Swisscom (7 years) to Orange/Salt (since March 2015) and don't regret it one bit. Good riddance and overall signal 3G/4G coverage is also much better.
I am paying 20 chf since last year for salt with internet. For cancellation they told me to switch my sim some of my friend othetwise they will charge 100chf for cancellation
I would happily pay CHF100 as I understand I'm breaking a contract, but CHF500 seems a little much for someone that has been with them for a few years.
Just so you know, for Salt the termination terms are,
CHF100 fee for sim only contract.
CHF300 fee for 12 month contracts.
CHF500 fee for 24 month contracts.
Doesn't matter how long you have left, my account would cost me CHF475 to continue until the end of the contract, but still early termination is CHF500.
Strangely I have the opposite experience when commuting between Basel and Zurich: Swisscom is stronger than Salt and I can do online conference calls for basically the whole trip with almost no interruption except maybe two tunnels.
But Salt has improved a lot over the last year or so.
Having worked in the industry for a long time: Every cell has a certain number of connections it can handle. If a large group of people at once move from one cell to the next do the first few get a good connection and the last ones not. It sounds stupid but it really makes a difference WHERE on the train you sit - if you are in the first carriage will you most likely get a good Swisscom connection, if you are in the last most likely not. Since Salt has a lot fewer subscribers can I imagine that the difference is much smaller.