Swisscom has laid fibre-optic cabling in Chiasso municipality

Berne, 10-6-2013 — /europawire.eu/ —  Over the next few years, Swisscom will supply Chiasso with fibre-optic technology, thus allowing homes and business in the Ticino municipality to connect to the ultra high-speed communications network. Swisscom will inform homeowners in the Soldini neighbourhood about the expansion from the start of June onwards, with the first customers being able to connect to the network in autumn 2013. As a result, Chiasso will be the 51st municipality in which Swisscom has laid fibre-optic cabling into the homes and businesses of its customers.

Swisscom is installing at least four fibre-optic cables per household or business. This is in line with the recommendations of the round-table talks conducted under the auspices of the Federal Communications Commission (ComCom). Swisscom will also give other telecom companies access to the new network so that customers may choose between attractive offers from a variety of service providers. Over 30 Internet service providers already use the Swisscom infrastructure so that they can provide business and private customers with their own services, such as telephony, Internet, TV or Video-on-Demand, without having to invest in the infrastructure themselves. Ticinocom SA is just one of the companies that makes use of the Swisscom network in order to be able to provide their customers throughout the canton of Ticino with innovative products. “The new fibre-optic network in Chiasso will allow us to be able to provide the people of Ticino with products that deliver an even greater performance”, said Karl H. Frankeser, CEO of Ticinocom.

Interconnectivity of Swiss4net Holding AG and Swisscom networks remains feasible
Swisscom has been holding discussions with Swiss4net Holding AG for quite some time now about jointly expanding the fibre-optic network in the municipality of Chiasso. There has been no agreement to date, due to differing ideas as regards the nature of the collaboration. As Swiss4net has already started signing up homeowners, Swisscom has no other option than to also begin work on constructing a network of its own. This is the only way in which Swisscom can in future continue to offer its customers competitive services in the quality that they are accustomed to. Swisscom regrets that both companies’ networks will be laid simultaneously. Although Swisscom only needs to carry out a small amount of civil engineering work, the simultaneous construction of the networks will result in increased expansion costs and emissions for the local population. Nevertheless, it will still be possible to interconnect the two fibre-optic networks of Swiss4net and Swisscom at any time.

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