Responding to criticism from the Swiss Competition Commission (ComCo), Swisscom has renegotiated its agreement with energy company IWB and will restart the deployment of fiber to the home (FTTH) infrastructure in Basel.
Swisscom halted its FTTH work in Basel – as well as in several other Swiss cities – when ComCo ruled that its agreements with local energy providers gave Swisscom too much influence in the determination of how competing service providers might share the resulting networks. Swisscom says that after what it termed “intensive negotiations” with IWB, “certain clauses have been removed and/or amended,” to address ComCo’s concerns. Specifically, clauses related to “investment protection” and Layer 1 exclusivity have been deleted. ComCo has been informed of the amended agreement, and now Swisscom says it is free to begin FTTH deployment again.
The method for compensation payments has also been “clarified.” If one partner makes considerably more use of the infrastructure than its share of the investment warrants, the other party will receive compensation. This mechanism will not apply until after completion of the basic expansion in Basel, which is slated for 2018.
Swisscom says it will spend more than CHF 100 million for the FTTH expansion.
The Swiss national carrier did not comment on any changes to the agreements behind its other suspended FTTH projects.