May 11, 2005 Bern, Switzerland -- Cisco today announced "a multi-million dollar contract" with Swisscom to enable the carrier's network with Ethernet services for businesses and "triple play" broadband services for residential and wholesale customers. The carrier will deploy the company's CRS-1 carrier routing systems and IOS XR software at network core and aggregation points throughout Switzerland, interconnected by 10-Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) wide-area network links.
According to a press release, the company and the carrier's engineering team planned the network transformation project in order to meet the technical and business requirements of the carrier's Fixnet division, focusing on customer satisfaction and the launch of triple-play services in 2005. The carrier says it aims to achieve an 8X increase in traffic handling capacity, while creating a platform capable of handling both fixed and mobile services in the future, as well as scaling to achieve targeted growth over the next five years.
"With more than 40% broadband penetration of all households, Switzerland is at the forefront in Europe. The hunger for broadband will continue to grow in this country," declares Patrice Haldemann, head of network development and operations at Swisscom Fixnet. "Fixed-mobile convergence will be another key driver in the coming years. A reliable and high-bandwidth core will be critical for our success. The Cisco CRS-1 will give us the lead in reliability, performance, and capacity to deliver media-rich communications and entertainment services to every home and business in Switzerland."
"Swisscom has always taken market-leading decisions on next-generation business, service, and technology strategies. This is why Swisscom's decision to build the foundation for its future on Cisco CRS-1 technology is particularly significant," concludes Michael Ganser, vice president of Cisco's central and eastern European region operations.