Swisscom Fires Up VDSL

BERN, Switzerland -- 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
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.

Swisscom AG (NYSE: SCM)