Swiss incumbent Swisscom is considering shutting down its local exchanges as part of its ongoing fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) and VDSL next-generation access network (NGAN) rollout. The strategy, first articulated in Europe by KPN of die Netherlands, could mark an end to local-loop unbundling (LLU) competition in Switzerland before it has even begun. When KPN announced its plans in 2005, the Netherlands' DSL operators immediately suspended their plans to unbundle further exchanges (TM, 17 Oct, 2006). Swisscom is expected to introduce its first LLU reference offer shortly (TM, 30 Jan, 2007). Like KPN, Swisscom's interest in the strategy is driven by a desire to reduce costs in the face of powerful cable competition, according to Katrin Schweren, deputy head of group regulatory affairs for the incumbent. "If you have to run both infrastructures in parallel, the business case is not really very interesting," she said at an IIR conference on telecoms regulation in Budapest last month. "The reduction of the MDFs [local exchanges] is key to surviving in the world to come." However, Swisscom faces a number of regulatory obstacles to gaining approval for the shut-down.
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