Small TV network operators are closing in on the big players
The television of the future is intensifying competition among Swiss providers. While Swisscom and Cablecom are upgrading their networks, regional cable providers are striking back by laying fiber-optic cables directly to residential customers.
The television of the future is intensifying competition among Swiss providers. While Swisscom and Cablecom are upgrading their networks, regional cable providers are striking back: They are pulling fiber optic cables to private customers. According to SDA, the company CATV Satellitentechnik has for the first time laid fiber optic cable to the end customer in a Basel housing cooperative. Until now, only business customers have been able to benefit from ultra-fast lines. Now surfing speeds of 100 megabits per second (Mbit/s) and more are no problem for private customers either, CATV Managing Director Werner Zimmermann told SDA. Swisscom currently stops at 15 Mbit/s and Cablecom at 10 Mbit/s.
Laying fiber optics directly into private homes is new. The cable network operator Télévision Sierre began upgrading its network to fiber optics a year ago. However, the optical fibers only reach the neighborhood distribution boxes. From there, customers are served with traditional copper cables.
Stadtantennen AG Baar (STAG) took a step closer to the end customer by installing fiber optic cables in a residential complex as a pilot project, but not in the individual apartments.
This means that the residents of the 190 apartments in Basel have a head start in terms of bandwidth and no longer have to worry about bottlenecks threatening conventional networks due to the flood of images. Cablecom, for example, caused a lot of red flags when it dropped analog TV channels to make room for digital channels.
Meanwhile, 45 analog TV channels, 600 digital TV channels and 30 high-definition channels (HDTV) are running on the new fiber optic network of the Basel development. "In extreme cases, we can transmit up to 3,000 TV channels," says CATV Managing Director Zimmermann. In addition, the TV picture quality of his fiber optic system is significantly better than that of Swisscom or Cablecom.
Swisscom no longer offers Bluewin TV to new customers who only have ADSL access (maximum 5 Mbit/s) and are not yet connected to the much faster VDSL technology (currently 16 Mbit/s). For those first-time customers who still receive Bluewin TV via ADSL, picture and sound weaknesses make for a clouded viewing experience.
Laying fiber optics directly into private homes is new. The cable network operator Télévision Sierre began upgrading its network to fiber optics a year ago. However, the optical fibers only reach the neighborhood distribution boxes. From there, customers are served with traditional copper cables.
Stadtantennen AG Baar (STAG) took a step closer to the end customer by installing fiber optic cables in a residential complex as a pilot project, but not in the individual apartments.
This means that the residents of the 190 apartments in Basel have a head start in terms of bandwidth and no longer have to worry about bottlenecks threatening conventional networks due to the flood of images. Cablecom, for example, caused a lot of red flags when it dropped analog TV channels to make room for digital channels.
Meanwhile, 45 analog TV channels, 600 digital TV channels and 30 high-definition channels (HDTV) are running on the new fiber optic network of the Basel development. "In extreme cases, we can transmit up to 3,000 TV channels," says CATV Managing Director Zimmermann. In addition, the TV picture quality of his fiber optic system is significantly better than that of Swisscom or Cablecom.
Swisscom no longer offers Bluewin TV to new customers who only have ADSL access (maximum 5 Mbit/s) and are not yet connected to the much faster VDSL technology (currently 16 Mbit/s). For those first-time customers who still receive Bluewin TV via ADSL, picture and sound weaknesses make for a clouded viewing experience.
