TMCnet News
'Swisscom unveils FTTH plans, commercial launch in 2009'(DMeurope Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Swisscom has started the second phase of its nationwide fibre optic broadband network by connecting households and SMEs. The deployment of FTTH and FTTO has already started in Zurich, Basel and Geneva, with the aim of connecting 100,000 households with fibre-optic cables by the end of 2009. The plan is then to further extend the network in the course of next year to include residential premises in the cities of St. Gallen, Berne, Fribourg and Lausanne. The first offerings for residential customers and SMEs will be launched in the first half of 2009. Over the next six years Swisscom is planning to invest some CHF 8 billion in the Swiss telecommunications and IT infrastructure, with 35 percent of this sum earmarked for fibre-optic expansion. Swisscom will be laying several fibres per household in all areas, with one fibre to be used by Swisscom, while the others will be made available to the cooperation partners like service providers and utilities. The multi-fibre model will prevent the creation of a new network monopoly in Switzerland and also meet competitors' requirements for full access to the local loop (copper pairs) as stipulated by the Telecommunications Act. Swisscom presented its reseller offerings to all ISPs at the beginning of November. In the initial phase these non-discriminatory and fair offerings will cover bandwidths of 30 to 50 Mbps for download (receiving data) and up to 10 Mbps for upload (sending data). During the pilot phase, which starts at the beginning of March and will become a commercial service in autumn 2009, the offerings will focus on the areas in Zurich, Basel and Geneva which are already equipped with fibre-optic cables. As part of the agreed collaboration, the partners will check the technical implementation and market acceptance of the individual offerings. Internet service providers, including VTX, green, netstream and init7, are free to design their own end customer and reseller offerings. (Distributed for DMeurope.com via M2 Communications Ltd (www.m2.com)) Copyright ? 2008 M2 Communications Ltd. |