Sunrise Communications

Sunrise challenged Swisscom's telecom dominance through infrastructure competition - building parallel mobile and broadband networks rather than reselling capacity. Founded in 1996, the company invested billions in 4G/5G and cable networks, creating genuine facilities-based competition that forced Swisscom to improve service and pricing. This capital-intensive strategy requires patient investors: UPC (Liberty Global) funded Sunrise's expansion for decades before merging with Sunrise in 2020. The combined entity's 3+ million customers prove that in natural monopoly industries like telecom, the only sustainable competition comes from rivals willing to match incumbent infrastructure investments - a rare commitment in capital markets favoring asset-light businesses.