Swisscom invests in Switzerland's future: superfast broadband expansion and surfing speeds of up to 1 Gbps

High-speed Internet access is becoming more and more important: whether for teleworking, high-resolution television viewing or online gaming - the number of activities that take place over the Internet is growing all the time. But for applications such as these customers attach priority not only to having a high-speed Internet connection but also factors such as availability, security and ease of access. Swisscom is launching a number of initiatives aimed at expanding the company's portfolio and is also ploughing huge investments into enhancing the performance of its networks. For example, it is deploying a mix of fibre-optic technologies in order to provide superfast Internet access throughout Switzerland. At the beginning of 2014, Swisscom will start rolling out the new vectoring technology for VDSL, which will improve the quality of transmission via copper cables. Vectoring will allow a doubling of the current bandwidths.

Eighty percent of households and businesses to receive up to 100 Mbps and more by 2020
In addition to vectoring, Swisscom will continue this year with the rollout of fibre-to-the-street (FTTS) so that locations outside the major urban centres can also be quickly upgraded to fibre-optic technology. Swisscom is also currently testing fibre-to-the-building (FTTB), which involves running fibres to building basements and using the existing copper cables within the building itself. FTTS and FTTB will initially allow surfing speeds up to 100 Mbps. Laboratory tests have already achieved speeds of between 400 and 1,000 Mbps.

FTTH (fibre-to-the-home) rollout will continue alongside these activities. Using a mix of technologies means that Swisscom can quickly extend broadband coverage throughout Switzerland. By 2015, around 2.3 million households and businesses will benefit from ultra-wide broadband: using vectoring (800,000 households and businesses), FTTS and FTTB (500,000) and FTTH (1 million).

By 2020, broadband speeds of 100 Mbps will be possible in over 80 percent of households and businesses. Swisscom is investing a total of CHF 1.75 billion this year in infrastructure.

Swisscom is the first Switzerland-wide provider to offer 1 Gbps
As well as nationwide coverage, Swisscom also offers customers the fastest Internet access. For example, by the end of this year all 700,000 customers with FTTH access will benefit from speeds up of to 1 Gbps nationwide. This month Swisscom is conducting a pilot trial with over 100 subscribers.

New Internet-Box for simple, secure, ultra-fast Internet surfing
Swisscom has developed a new Internet-Box so that customers can also continue to browse the Internet at speeds of up to 1 Gbps in the future, making the Internet experience extremely fast as well as extremely simple and secure. Customers will also benefit from massively faster surfing thanks to the WLAN-ac standard, which will allow future data transmission speeds of up to 1.3 Gbps.

The Internet-Box is easy to install and use since it comes with a display to guide the customer through the individual procedures step-by-step. Phones and HD phones such as the Rousseau 300, which provides crystal-clear quality for voice calls, can be connected at the touch of a button. The new Internet-Box stands for all-round security: Swisscom is the first provider to offer guest-WLAN access, which can be activated at the touch of a button and the password then appears on the display. In addition, surfing times can be individually configured per device and weekday so that child protection is also assured.

In October, Swisscom will launch a pilot with several thousand already selected subscribers. At the end of the year, customers with FTTH access will be able to benefit from the new Internet-Box.