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The Federal Supreme Court has rejected Swisscom’s appeal, leaving the operators fibre expansion

At the end of 2020, the Swiss Competition Commission (COMCO) announced the launch of an investigation into Swisscom’s fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) expansion using point-to-multipoint (P2MP), suggesting that this topology was a risk to market competition.

P2MP topology involves building on the existing network, with a single fibre line running from the exchange to the local cable duct before branching off to serve multiple customers.

This is opposed to point-to-point (P2P) topology, where each customer is connected to the exchange directly with their own fibre line.

Swisscom argues that this P2MP topology is very efficient and less complex, allowing them to rollout networks more economically, even in remote regions. They note that P2MP topology has “gained international acceptance in recent years” and is “only criticised in Switzerland, which we cannot understand”.

COMCO, on the other hand, holds that Swisscom’s rollout strategy centring on P2MP will make it difficult for smaller providers without their own network to compete effectively.

As a result, COMCO prohibited Swisscom from marketing its P2MP connections until the investigation is complete. This has effectively frozen the roughly 500,000 P2MP access lines the operator currently has installed – a figure that has been increasing by roughly 70,000 each quarter.

Swisscom challenged this decision in court, having their first appeal rejected by the Federal Administrative Court last year.

Since then, the company has escalated its complaints to Switzerland’s highest court, but this week they too have rejected the appeal.

“The Federal Supreme Court rejects Swisscom’s appeal in connection with the precautionary measure imposed by the Competition Commission (WEKO) for the expansion of the fibre-optic network. The decision of the Federal Administrative Court, in which it confirmed the provisional WEKO ban, is not arbitrary,” said the court in a statement.

In a statement, Swisscom says they accept the ruling, noting that they had already begun reassessing their fibre network expansion strategy to reduce their reliance on P2MP topology.

Following this strategi shift, Swisscom has subsequently lowered its targets for FTTH coverage to 50–55% of homes by 2025 and 70–80% by 2030.

Rollout capex will remain unchanged.

The final ruling by COMCO on the legality of Swisscom’s use of P2MP topology is expected to be announced early next year.

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Vodacom launches National Relay Service to boost digital inclusion

The post Court rules against Swisscom in FTTH expansion case first appeared on Total Telecom.

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Contributed Article

At the 25th AfricaCom (AfricaCom 2022) themed “Driving Inclusive, Sustainable Growth Through Tech Investment”, Openserve and Huawei jointly unveiled the new home networking solution — fiber to the room (FTTR). In addition, Openserve outlined its plan to put FTTR products into commercial use in the near future, aiming to provide optimal fiber broadband experience for users across South Africa.

As a subsidiary of Telkom SA, Openserve is the largest fixed network operator in South Africa, and is committed to providing premium broadband networks for home and enterprise users. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, home office, online learning, and entertainment activities have surged, placing greater demands on bandwidth and online experience. Openserve believes that the FTTR solution can give them a competitive edge in the broadband market and significantly improve end users’ home network experience.

During the AfricaCom exhibition, Motlalepula Ramaisa, Executive of Commercial Products & Innovation of Openserve, spoke with Matthew Reed, Chief Analyst of Omdia, and described the commercial FTTR pilot projects carried out by Openserve and Huawei in South Africa. He noted how well the FTTR network was received by pilot users. According to one user: “Even in a large house, I can enjoy an optimal Internet access experience with high-speed Wi-Fi coverage at every corner.”

FTTR consists of one master FTTR unit and several slave FTTR units connected by optical fibers, realizing indoor all-optical networking. The Master and Slave communicate with each other through optical fibers, which avoiding Wi-Fi signal interference and attenuation in distant rooms. In this way, full Wi-Fi signal coverage and seamless roaming can be achieved throughout the house, providing consistent Wi-Fi access and premium service experience anywhere in the home. Compare with Wi-Fi Mesh (Wi-Fi cascading to expand network coverage) solution, which Internet access rate may be impacted due to attenuation and interference when signals penetrate walls, but it is still an alternative way of Wi-Fi connection.

Moreover, the FTTR solution lets users manage the network themselves. Users can use a mobile app to easily manage their home networks anytime and anywhere, including checking the network status, device connection status, and Wi-Fi signal coverage, as well as performing a speed test, parental control, and one-click optimization or rectification of common network faults.

The FTTR solution was well received in the pilot projects. Owing to the high-speed Wi-Fi coverage, seamless roaming handover, and intelligent and visualized home network management, it provides users with an ultimate Wi-Fi experience. Building on the success of the cooperation with Huawei, Openserve plans to launch commercial FTTR products in 2023 to provide an optimal home broadband service experience across South Africa.

The post Openserve Set to Launch Range of FTTR Products in 2023 first appeared on Total Telecom.