Geneva_user
They actually have 1Gbit connections now in Geneva, BUT only in certain places.
In my building i can get the max of 40'000 and I do get my max speed at all times, only the past couple of months i had some issue with my DSL line and the speed was down to 30'000.. Technician came and fixed up the issue i had and he called Swisscom and within 20mins my 40'000 came back to what it was and been solid ever since.
On the other hand, i have a friend who lives just 2 buildings away from me and he has Fiber optic @ 100'000 so it al depends on the building. In my experience, Swisscom is responsible to get you the speed just to your area and then its up to your building owners to update their lines within the building itself to make it work with the new technology and reach its full speed potential. So maybe try to talk with your Regie and see what they tell you.
Also, if you are paying for 50'000 and you only get 10'000 and there is no way to get more, i guess you should call them and change your contract and only pay for what you get. I paid for 50'000 for 2 weeks and i had the max of 40'000, i called them up and they changed my max speed to 40'000 and only paid the first 2 weeks for 50'000 then i started paying for 40'000.
About other countries having faster internet for lower costs, there has been a lot of debate here in Switzerland regarding this. There was also a report in the newspaper i think last year claiming that in Switzerland we pay almost 80% more then France, Germany and Holland and get less then 50% of the speed they get.
Usually these debates end with them saying "You live in Switzerland, youre expected to get over priced services.". Also, usually the internet in France for example is CAPPED and its not a dedicated line, it depends on the usuage of the area where you live, where here in Switzerland the DSL line IS dedicated to you to guarantee the full speed your phone lines can manage.
Personally, i dont mind paying the extra money as well to have 1Gbit speeds.. But god knows when this will reach my area when even 100'000 is not even available in my building.
I guess my 40'000 is good enough for now. My only issue really is the low upload speed and thats what i personally care about the most.
FYI, ive been using Swisscom internet since 2000 or maybe earlier then that and the internet speed was always at full speed unless they had some kind of outage.
I hope the story i just wrote can shed some light to people about this. And remember, always call Swisscom when you have issuey, 99% of the time their customer support was nice and did their best to solve the issue.