Swisscom to Offer Gigabit Flatrates by Year-End

Swisscom is accelerating its fiber optic network deployment across Switzerland, aiming to provide at least 100 Mbit/s to over 80 percent of homes and businesses by 2020.

As part of this initiative, the first Swiss households will gain access to flatrate tariffs offering speeds up to 1000 Mbit/s within weeks. Following a September pilot with 100 participants, 700,000 customers are expected to be able to order these high-speed plans by year-end.

The company is utilizing a mix of technologies, including FTTH (Fiber to the Home), FTTS (Fiber to the Street), and VDSL Vectoring. By 2015, the plan is to connect one million premises with FTTH, 800,000 with VDSL Vectoring, and 500,000 with FTTS and FTTB solutions.

Significant investment is being made in the infrastructure, with approximately 1.75 billion Swiss francs allocated for 2013 alone. A new Internet Box has also been developed to support speeds up to 1.3 Gbit/s, featuring the latest Wi-Fi standard (802.11ac).