That is why Swisscom will soon be building private fiber optic connections for CHF 10,000

At the end of 2021, only every fourth high-speed Internet connection in Switzerland was based on fiber optic technology. This value at the so-called FTTH (Fibre To The Home) connections is low in an international comparison – and has only risen slowly lately. This is also because Swisscom has built hundreds of thousands of connections, but is not allowed to release them to its customers.

This could now change. This is apparent from an offer that Swisscom recently advertised on a website. From January 1, 2023, private home or apartment owners who do not yet have a fiber optic connection can request this from Swisscom.

If certain technical requirements are met and the owners are willing to bear some of the costs, they will have a faster fiber connection than originally planned by Swisscom.

Is Swisscom back to P2P?

The special thing about it: the connections are made in the so-called P2P procedure (“Point To Point”) built. Swisscom actually wanted to switch to the cheaper P2MP (“Point To Multipoint”) method for further expansion. Several customers share a fiber optic line from the control center to a so-called splitter.

This method is cheaper but offers less capacity per customer. Competitors such as Init7, some of which have access to Swisscom’s infrastructure, summoned the Competition Commission (Weko) in 2020. This banned Swisscom from switching to P2MP – a measure confirmed by the Federal Administrative Court last year. Swisscom is now negotiating a solution with Weko.

Since then, the fronts have seemed hardened – and 300,000 fiber links already built by Swisscom using the P2MP process are ready, but cannot be released for marketing due to the court decision. Competitors such as Init7 see the fact that Swisscom is now offering private customers to rebuild fiber optic connections via the more expensive P2P process as a change of course. The telecom provider speaks on Twitter of “good news”.

Conversion to P2P topology

Swisscom goes even further: it will return some of the P2MP connections already made to the P2P topology, confirms spokesman Josef Huber. In addition, Swisscom decided to expand the extension of P2P.

With this, the company wants to counteract a further increase in connections that are built via the P2MP process, which cannot be brought onto the market after all.

According to Huber, this decision was made in September – “because the process is taking a long time”. However, Swisscom is still seeking an amicable settlement with ComCo. For this she is in close contact and “trying to find a quick solution”.

According to Josef Huber, all property owners who already have fiber optic in the street can take advantage of the new offer. These are so-called FTTS (Fibre To The Street) connections. According to Huber, these requirements are met in about half of the internet connections.

Thousands of francs per house

According to the Swisscom website, the owners must contribute to the costs themselves. As a guideline for a four-apartment house, Swisscom gives an amount of CHF 10,000. Swisscom will basically bear the construction costs, spokesman Huber says.

These additional costs would be the result of the loss of economies of scale that could be realized with regular expansion of land in the local community. Swisscom cannot yet say how big the demand for the supply is, because the supply has only been published recently.

(aargauerzeitung.ch)