Federal Council wants to promote fast internet with up to 750 million
The Federal Council intends to provide up to 750 million Swiss francs in funding to expand high-speed internet access throughout Switzerland. It has tasked the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy, and Communications (UVEK) with drafting a consultation document on the matter.
To give the Swiss population nationwide access to very fast Internet, the Federal Council is proposing a funding program, as the government announced on Friday. Network expansion is to be supported outside the centers in peripheral regions. This should prevent a digital urban-rural divide.
The Federal Council intends to finance the expansion primarily with funds from the two future awards of mobile radio frequencies, the statement continued. It is also planned that the industry and affected cantons will participate.
Specifically, the program is intended to motivate private companies to invest in sparsely populated areas where the expansion of modern telecom networks would not be worthwhile. The aim is to finance the gap between expenditure and the expected income over the lifetime of the network.
Only where there is demand and no supply
Support would only be provided where the market itself does not already provide an offer. According to the Federal Council, private investment should not be inhibited or crowded out by the federal government. Moreover, expansion would only be promoted where there is demand.
If a municipality or region does not consider the development to be necessary, no funding will be provided, as the Federal Council announced. The 750 million francs is therefore a maximum amount.
In particular, the fiber optic network is to be expanded right into homes. In very sparsely populated areas, the focus is on the expansion of wireless technologies. The Federal Council assumes that costs can be significantly reduced with this mix. If lines for the fiber optic network were expanded throughout Switzerland, it would cost around CHF 1.4 billion, according to the report.
Limited to seven years
According to the Federal Council, the funding program is expected to be limited to the next seven years. To ensure that the entire population and the economy can benefit as much as possible from digitization, the Federal Council is aiming for a nationwide coverage of one gigabit per second throughout Switzerland.
According to the Federal Council, this corresponds to more than twelve times the Internet speed of the current universal service in Switzerland. To achieve this, the network infrastructure would have to be massively expanded. (SDA)
