Switzerland’s Sunrise calls for fibre regulation

Swiss service provider Sunrise has called for the Swiss Federal Council to introduce regulatory framework for fibre optic cable network access.

Responding to the Federal Council’s latest telecommunications report, which gives the go-ahead for revision of the Telecommunications Act, Sunrise attacked the council for not addressing fibre optic cable access when it previously indicated it would do so.

“Sunrise is calling for a swift and binding regulation in regard to fibre optic cable network access in the first phase of revision in 2015,” said the firm in a statement.

“It is incomprehensible…that the Federal Council has decided to postpone the possible inclusion of fibre optic cable networks into the regulatory framework until a second stage of the revision process, which, although still possible, has been shelved for the time being,” said Sunrise.

“This is despite the fact that the Council has also come to the conclusion that regulating access to new connectivity technologies is of central importance for safeguarding the competition in the telecommunications market.

“These new networks use duct infrastructure mainly developed during a time when a monopoly existed, and are already replacing the conventional copper technology. Therefore, Sunrise is calling for a swift and binding regulation… to serve as a security net in case the market fails.”