Swisscom wants to tear up an additional 3200 kilometers of roads
Published: Sunday, Mar 31st 2024, 13:00
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Swisscom wants to tear up an additional 3,200 kilometers of roads to build its fiber optic network. This is in response to pressure from the Federal Competition Commission, which launched an investigation into the construction of this network in 2020.
At the request of the Keystone-SDA news agency on Sunday, the Swisscom media office confirmed a corresponding statement by Thomas Stemmler, Head of Regulation and Policy at Swisscom, in the SonntagsZeitung newspaper. According to Stemmler, the fiber optic architecture preferred by the Competition Commission requires many additional cables that cannot be accommodated in the existing pipes in the ground.
"That's why the roads have to be opened up and thicker pipes laid in many places throughout Switzerland," Stemmler said in the article. When asked, Swisscom media spokeswoman Alicia Richon said she could not say how many kilometers of road Swisscom had already opened up in the course of the fiber optic construction.
According to the SonntagsZeitung, experts estimate the costs for the additional construction of roads for fiber optics at two billion Swiss francs. "We don't give any figures," said the media spokeswoman.
In dispute with Weko since 2020
At the end of 2020, the Competition Commission opened an investigation into Swisscom's fiber optic roll-out. This is still ongoing. The anti-trust watchdog considers Swisscom's previous network architecture with only one supply line from the telephone exchange to the street well to be anti-competitive.
The Competition Commission is insisting on an expansion with a line for every household. This is the only way that Swisscom's competitors could offer customers their own Internet services that differ from those of Swisscom and, for example, offer higher surfing speeds than the "Blue Giant".
Swisscom adjusted its plans back in October 2022 in response to pressure from the Competition Commission. Due to the dispute with the authorities, hundreds of thousands of blocked connections could not be put into operation. The company is now once again building direct lines from the telephone exchange to households.
Swisscom has been carrying out the expansion since fall 2022, as required by the Competition Commission, says Swisscom spokeswoman Richon. Since Sunday, it is now known to what extent roadworks are necessary for this.
Also a topic in federal Bern
The dispute between Swisscom and the Competition Commission has already led to parliamentary interventions in the Federal Parliament.
In mid-February of this year, the Federal Council wrote in a response to an interpellation that it regretted the delay in the expansion of fiber optics in Switzerland. There was no indication that the Competition Commission was overstepping its authority in the proceedings against Swisscom.
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