Swisscom - About Swisscom - Faster Internet access: VDSL bandwidths of up to 16,000 kbps are now a reality

Berne, 08 May 2007, 08:30

Faster Internet access: VDSL bandwidths of up to 16,000 kbps are now a reality

From 1 July 2007, Swisscom Fixnet Wholesale will offer its first broadband services for residential and business customers with data transmission speeds of up to 16,000 kbps (downstream), allowing customers access to the most up-to-date and fastest broadband technology around: VDSL. Swisscom is investing heavily in optical and broadband expansion in the interests of the Swiss information society: By the end of 2007 Swisscom plans to offer some 50 percent of Swiss households access to ultra-high-speed data connections.

From the middle of this year, Swisscom will offer residential and business customers an ultra-high-speed broadband service based on bit-stream data speeds of up to 16,000 kbps on its VDSL (Very High Bit Rate Digital Subscriber Line) network:

Customer segment	Profile (downstream/upstream)
Residential	Max. 15,000/1,000 kbps
Business	Max. 12,000/2,000 kbps
Business	Max. 16,000/4,000 kbps

Swisscom is introducing this service as a supplement to its commercial broadband access services. At present the company provides more than 98% of Swiss households with broadband Internet access over the nation-wide ADSL network. Swisscom also offers resellers comprehensive, commercially attractive broadband services. Since the Telecommunications Act came into force on 1 April 2007, alternative telecommunication service providers can also lease copper cables from Swisscom and use them to deliver their own broadband services.

Swisscom is investing heavily in network expansion - fibre-to-the-neighbourhood

As Switzerland's leading network operator, Swisscom is driving the information society forward: the company deploys optical fibre to the neighbourhood, where a distribution cabinet forwards data to households over copper cables. In addition to optical fibre expansion, Swisscom is also installing some 5,800 distribution cabinets. Up to the end of 2008 Swisscom is aiming to invest CHF 600 - 700 million in expanding the VDSL network. By the end of 2007 the company plans to make this high-speed infrastructure accessible to some 50 percent of Swiss households.

The benefits of healthy competition: Switzerland is among the top five countries in the world in terms of broadband usage

Switzerland is among the international leaders when it comes to broadband coverage. And further expansion of the Swisscom VDSL infrastructure will boost the country's top-ranking position even further. According to an OECD study, even now Switzerland ranks Number Five in the world in terms of broadband Internet access usage (xDSL and cable networks): At the end of 2006 the number of Internet connections was 2.14 million, equivalent to almost 70% of all Swiss households.

These extremely high usage statistics are also attributable to the intense level of competition in the Swiss market: Switzerland owes its good coverage to the competing infrastructures of Swisscom and various cable network providers. In addition, Swisscom Fixnet Wholesale has for years been selling its xDSL services throughout Switzerland via a network of around 30 competing Internet Service Providers. The entire range of services including the new VDSL offering covers a wide spectrum of broadband solutions to meet the varying needs of residential and business customers.