The FWS Profit Center comprises the units Network Operations (NO), Service Development (SD) and Wholesale (WS) and covers the whole of Swisscom´s national and international fixed network operations: from network planning and development to maintenance, monitoring and marketing.

The appointment of Christoph Brand as Head of FWS represents a further move towards closer cooperation between Fixnet and Bluewin.

Aged 32 and a graduate in business administration, Christoph Brand took over the management of Bluewin in December 1998 and succeeded in securing the company a clear market leader position in the field of Internet service provisioning. The company´s customer base rose from around 150,000 to over 1.3 million registered customers and over 700,000 active access customers. In the Swiss portal business Bluewin expanded its coverage to a clear market lead. Furthermore, Bluewin has grown to become one of the 20 most popular Swiss brands (source: Wirthlin / AYR 2000) Also in his new role Christoph Brand will remain a member of the Swisscom Fixnet executive board.

Urs Schmidig new CEO of Bluewin

Also effective 1 April 2002 Urs Schmidig will take over as the new CEO of Bluewin. An employee who has been with the company from its inception and hitherto deputy of Christoph Brand, Urs Schmidig is well acquainted with his management brief at Bluewin. Urs Schmidig played a pivotal role in the successful development of Bluewin´s service offering and has been responsible for a good eighteen months for the operational side of Bluewin´s business (access, portal, application services). Urs Schmidig will become a member of the Swisscom Fixnet executive board. He is 35 years old and a graduate in Media Studies.

Another newcomer to the FWS Profit Center is Christian Hütwohl, aged 39, and until now a member of the executive board and CFO of Bluewin Ltd. At Bluewin Mr Hütwohl was responsible for rapidly setting up the finance department following the spin-off from Swisscom in May 2000, as well as introducing the use of IAS (International Accounting Standards) and looking after financial controlling of the Bluewin group and strategic planning. At FWS he will assume responsibility for the newly created finance department. Christian Hütwohl´s successor at Bluewin will be Knut Eschweiler, aged 35, and previously CFO of the former subsidiary BluePrimus.

Swisscom Fixnet

 
Swisscom Fixnet covers the entire national and international business in the fixed telephony area. This includes the planning and maintenance of the network infrastructure, the re-selling of network services (wholesale) and the customer-oriented (retail) business (shops and SMEs). Since autumn 2001 responsibility for network construction has been in the hands of Swisscom Fixnet subsidiary cablex AG. Also forming an integral part of Fixnet are the largely independent areas Operator Services, Payphone Services and Cards (phonecards).
 
In autumn 2001 a decision was taken to enter into close collaboration with Swisscom subsidiary Bluewin Ltd. With a view to optimising operations Bluewin will be managed by Swisscom Fixnet as a profit center while retaining its status as a public limited company.

Bluewin

Bluewin, which today boasts over 700,000 active access customers and reached over 100 million page views per month in December 2001, has been offering a comprehensive Internet service for residential and SOHO (Small Office/Home Office) customers for over five years. In the rapidly growing online market Bluewin plays an intermediary role between the consumer (needs) and the supplier (offerings). Bluewin has a well structured portal that offers information and content covering a plethora of topics. The content, drawn largely from renowned partners, is aggregated by Bluewin.

Further information available from:
Swisscom Media Relations: 031 342 13 00
Bluewin Media Center: 01 274 72 59

Berne / Zurich, 7 February 2002