Dec 10, 2012– Gossau, Switzerland (Techreleased) – The City of Gossau and Swisscom want to launch a joint venture to expand the fibre optic network to homes and businesses in Gossau. In a declaration of intent, the two partners agreed to complete the expansion of the new network in eight years. The investment now requires the approval of the city council and is expected to be put to the voters in Autumn 2013.
By 2022 Stadtwerke Gossau public utilities and Swisscom aim to connect 96 percent of the 9,000 homes and businesses in Gossau to the high-speed fibre optic network. Both companies have already signed a declaration of intent. The expansion of the fibre optic network is set to begin in early 2014. Before this, the joint venture needs to secure approval from the city council in spring 2013 and from the Gossau voters the following autumn.
This joint expansion will allow for costs to be optimised. The declaration of intent outlines that Swisscom will cover 60 percent of the relevant costs and Stadtwerke Gossau public utilities will cover the remaining 40 percent.
Four optical fibres per connection paves the way for competition
As part of the agreement, the Stadtwerke Gossau public utilities will connect 70 percent of homes and businesses while Swisscom will connect 30 percent. Both partners will lay at least four optical fibres per home and business. This is in line with ComCom recommendations, and will give customers the option to choose between the attractive offers made by different telecommunications providers which will have access to the new network thanks to the four optical fibres per connection.
A new home or business is connected to the Swiss fibre-optic network about every two minutes. By the end of September 2012, Swisscom and its joint venture partners had connected approximately 465,000 households and businesses to the network by running fibre-optic cables into the basement. This figure is set to rise to around a million by the end of 2015 – one-third of all households. Swisscom has invested 1.7 billion Swiss francs in the expansion of the infrastructure this year alone.
