This is huge news!

I don't know of another country that has better official geodata than Switzerland. The geo-information platform at https://map.geo.admin.ch/ has been online for a few years now (for free), and contains an incredible amount of geodata. For example, check out this query with protected areas that might be relevant for wild camping: https://bit.ly/2WJwXo6 (URL shortened because it's huge)

However, if you wanted to integrate this data into your own application, that was always a paid offering. The Swisstopo people were always quite open about their data, and - from what I heard - wanted to share more of it for free. However, because they're a federal agency, they can only do anything if they have a legal basis for that action. And there was no legal basis for "developing maps and applications using tax money and giving that away for free", they needed to cover their costs. The mindset used to be "don't waste taxpayers money" and not "open up data for the benefit of the society".

Now, with OGD strategies being adopted more and more, this has changed and Swisstopo has the legal right to make a deficit with their map offerings.

I'm looking forward to finally get access to gorgeous raster tiles and highly accurate elevation data! Thanks Swisstopo :)