Fibre optic expansion and copper decommissioning
In February, we announced that Swisscom plans to connect between 75% and 80% of all Swiss households and businesses with fibre optics by 2030 and in parallel gradually switch off the old copper network.
How will the fibre optic network expansion proceed and when will copper regions be switched off?
Swisscom is building the fibre optic network throughout Switzerland according to various criteria:
For areas where FTTH is already rolled out and available:
Fibre optics have been in place in these areas for some time and most of the buildings have already been connected. At the same time, there are still active copper connections in these areas. These copper connections can instantly be migrated to fibre optics.
In these areas over the next few years, Swisscom will also connect any remaining buildings that have not yet been connected to fibre optic cable network (Post Rollout).
- All addresses that already have fibre optic connectivity can be found in the WSG ordering system.
- Swisscom will announce Post Rollout work as early as possible .
- Swisscom will summarize the addresses and connections in tranches and cancel them every six months. The cancellation notice period will be 24 months.
- The first tranches are not planned to be cancelled before 2025.
For regular FTTH rollout areas:
This includes regular FTTH expansion, in which an area, community or access network is connected with fibre optics. This expansion is always limited to a specific municipality or part thereof.
- Swisscom usually announces the expansion approximately 12 - 18 months before the service will be available (ISR - Infrastructure & Service Ready date). The expansion is categorized into different quality classes.
- Once locations have been connected with fibre optics, Swisscom will combine the active copper-based services at these addresses into tranches and terminate them every six months. The cancellation notice period will be 24 months.
- The first tranches are not planned to be cancelled before 2025.
CO-Quit:
These are central offices (CO) that Swisscom will be leaving.
- Swisscom will communicate the end dates for these central offices as early as possible, and in practice as soon as the dates are definite.
- Copper-based services connected to these central offices will not be cancelled until after the FTTH expansion for the area is completed.
- The cancellation notice period is 24 months.
How do I know when connections can be marketed or will be cancelled?
- As before, all marketing information is listed in the familiar "FTTH Ready for Marketing Information" and "FTTH Ready for Order Information" lists. We are constantly adding all information on newly marketable connections. The lists are updated daily. You can find these in the WSG under "WSG Information Services".
- Swisscom is cancelling the copper-based services in tranches. For each tranche, all affected connections are listed individually.
- Please do not place any new orders for copper-based services. New orders for copper-based services are still possible until further notice. However for locations where the copper-based services have already been cancelled, Swisscom will only provide new copper services as a temporary service on a temporary basis (order in the WSG for interim use). This means that the affected new copper services will be automatically decommissioned at the end of the interim utilization period.
- Starting in the summer of 2024, the ordering systems will also show the limited term of these newly ordered copper-based services.
Good to know
FTTH - Fiber to the Home
With FTTH, optical fibres are pulled into a subscriber's home or business. There, the cables end in an optical telecommunications outlet (OTO) and are connected from there to the end device (e.g. a router). This enables very high and symmetrical data transmission rates of up to 10 Gbit/s (upload and download).
OTO – Optical Termination Outlet
The telecommunications socket serves as a connection point where the fibre optic cable (patch cable) is plugged in to connect devices such as computers or televisions to the fibre optic network via the router.
Service availability / ISR - Date
The date the fibre optic connection is ready for operation and service activation is possible (ISR: Infrastructure & Service Ready).
Marketing information
The marketing information contains the addresses where fibre optic connections are already available or are in the FTTH planning stage. These can be viewed in the WSG ordering system.
The "FTTH Ready for Order Information" list shows the addresses where fibre optic connections have already been built and can be ordered.
The "FTTH Ready for Marketing Information" list shows the addresses wehre the fibre optic connection is currently being planned. Depending on the planning process, these addresses are categorized into different quality classes.
Quality classes
The quality classes quantify the accuracy of the planned activation date of the corresponding connection for rollout and post-rollout planning.