Fiber optic expansion strategy in rural communities

    • I am referring here to another topic thread, in particular the [answer](https://community.swisscom.ch/t5/Internet-general/Glasfibrillausbau-Bundesgericht-stopp/m-p/844125 #M73817). She motivated me to use the Swisscom Netzauskunft and Availability Map. Init7 to consult. I haven’t gotten really smart yet, so here’s the follow-up.

    As already mentioned, the expansion was spread in various online sources in the spring, then in the summer you could see occasional bobbins, open shafts here and there and very rarely digging. After our community and our REFH settlement were already developed in the winter of 22/23, there is a ray of hope on the horizon. I thought. The disillusionment came when I studied the interactive map more closely:

    glasfarben_gemeinde.png

    Renovations are underway in the village center (light red spots) but not everywhere (circled in purple). I tried once again to understand the expansion strategy, but I couldn’t do it conclusively. Even though the branches are attached to the same DSLAM box, there are houses that get fiber optic and others that don’t. Here is a detail:

    glasfarben.png

    Red: Developed but not possible due to regulations.

    Orange: Not yet developed.

    Green: Will be activated in November 2024.

    The numbers are DL/UL [Mbps] from Checker.

    I don’t really believe the general hypothesis that this is due to the feeder. In particular, the two houses receive gFast from mCAN (375/90 Mbit/s) or the house at the very end, which is also to be expanded with 85/30 Mbit/s. The same situation occurs several times in the areas circled above. Basically not available on a large scale, but a few people seem to have been lucky…

    @Roger G: You always say that the data in the checker is correct. But I can’t really believe what “he” tells me about the community where I live. Is the data not tracked correctly? Or what is the actual reason for not expanding the entire core area, as is happening “all around”?

    And if you’re already hitting the keys, maybe you can make a basic statement “From the back to the front” is being expanded and we’ll soon be here for two years with fibers in the cellar but without a completed Anschluss smelling the bacon all the time, but him can’t eat. Doesn’t that just annoy your customers? And for Swisscom it is an unused investment.

    Technically speaking, I agree with Walter, but such little fine-tuning is not common in civil engineering, is it?

    😉

    Thank you & Greetings

    Android

    👽

    Show original language (German)
    • Roger G has responded to this post.

    • andiroid Unfortunately there won’t be any statements from me. Just situation analyzes and nothing from the crystal ball. I’m just wondering what it’ll do for you if you become fully aware of what’s happening in the community right down to the buildings.

      Fact 1: The mCAN in this area was built at the time to relieve the PUS, as it was running full due to the new buildings. That’s why there are customers who are still stuck on the PUS and have to make do with around 100mbps and others who have been attached to the mCAN. At the beginning it was a VDSL mCAN (same speed as from PUS), which was changed to g.Fast in the normal exchange. Hence the different speeds.

      Fact 2: The checker displays the data as well as it exists. I will never say that the data is 100% correct, there is no such thing. The human factor is crucial here. If a change is not entered, then the information is no longer correct. And we deliberately do not show the actual value (measured), because in the event of problems and stabilizations, the value could deviate significantly from the target value (management qualification).

      Why does your FTTH planning look like a patchwork quilt? We need mCAN for processing so that we have enough reserve. The WEKO Gedöns has pushed back the plans for the transition from FTTS to FTTH. This means that the mCANs have to stay in the ground longer and we need enough replacement stock when they go into the eternal hunting grounds. That’s why these mCANs are partially built over and immediately taken out of the shaft for overhaul. I don’t know, but that could actually be the plan here, as the map matches the mCAN locations quite well. And there is no need to add a feeder for the time being, because enough spares of the fiber optic connections from the mCAN to the headquarters can apparently be used. A 48p mCAN only uses 2 fibers and a significantly larger cable is often connected. That’s why the “lucky ones” who already have g.Fast and then get FTTH even earlier than others 😁 And believe me, they might be happier with FTTH because the want-to-have factor is fulfilled. And there are also those who choose the high speed.

      Dismantling of the headquarters possible. This is also an issue because the number of headquarters in the country must be reduced. If this is the case here, then it is definitely not worth putting a feeder there now. Only when the situation there is clear can FTTH be planned further.
      Simply for the feeling, on the map every orange flag is FTTS, every yellow FTTB, pink is a PUS and green (barely visible) is a RUS (CO, headquarters). In this section alone there are 4 control centers which, with the elimination of FTTS, no longer have to accommodate remote feeds from the mCAN. I think you could get by with 2 CO there and so the feeder could come from somewhere else.

      RogerG_2-1728548299966.png

      On the subject of anger, believe me, this is a minority who are “waiting” for FTTH. How many voice-only customers are there in your community, for example, or those with Internet S who were previously satisfied with 20, then 40mbps. Or those customers who really wanted FTTH in other areas, called again and again and reduced their subscription to 100mbps two months after they were migrated because they didn’t notice any difference compared to before. It’s exactly the same for me, because until 2 days ago I had 100/36 with DSL or 290/70 with Booster and now 10gbps…but the customer experience has remained absolutely the same. Nothing has changed.

      But if we build FTTH, then it should also be migrated asap, because these are the idle investments that Swisscom had to make with the expensive feeder migration. And every network element that I can switch off saves additional electricity and reduces operational effort on the DSL side.

      So, now @andiroid no longer has sleepless nights, knows why “weird” buildings are built for him and why others still have a tube television at home 🤗

        andiroid Unfortunately there won’t be any statements from me. Just situation analyzes and nothing from the crystal ball. I’m just wondering what it’ll do for you if you become fully aware of what’s happening in the community right down to the buildings.

        Fact 1: The mCAN in this area was built at the time to relieve the PUS, as it was running full due to the new buildings. That’s why there are customers who are still stuck on the PUS and have to make do with around 100mbps and others who have been attached to the mCAN. At the beginning it was a VDSL mCAN (same speed as from PUS), which was changed to g.Fast in the normal exchange. Hence the different speeds.

        Fact 2: The checker displays the data as well as it exists. I will never say that the data is 100% correct, there is no such thing. The human factor is crucial here. If a change is not entered, then the information is no longer correct. And we deliberately do not show the actual value (measured), because in the event of problems and stabilizations, the value could deviate significantly from the target value (management qualification).

        Why does your FTTH planning look like a patchwork quilt? We need mCAN for processing so that we have enough reserve. The WEKO Gedöns has pushed back the plans for the transition from FTTS to FTTH. This means that the mCANs have to stay in the ground longer and we need enough replacement stock when they go into the eternal hunting grounds. That’s why these mCANs are partially built over and immediately taken out of the shaft for overhaul. I don’t know, but that could actually be the plan here, as the map matches the mCAN locations quite well. And there is no need to add a feeder for the time being, because enough spares of the fiber optic connections from the mCAN to the headquarters can apparently be used. A 48p mCAN only uses 2 fibers and a significantly larger cable is often connected. That’s why the “lucky ones” who already have g.Fast and then get FTTH even earlier than others 😁 And believe me, they might be happier with FTTH because the want-to-have factor is fulfilled. And there are also those who choose the high speed.

        Dismantling of the headquarters possible. This is also an issue because the number of headquarters in the country must be reduced. If this is the case here, then it is definitely not worth putting a feeder there now. Only when the situation there is clear can FTTH be planned further.
        Simply for the feeling, on the map every orange flag is FTTS, every yellow FTTB, pink is a PUS and green (barely visible) is a RUS (CO, headquarters). In this section alone there are 4 control centers which, with the elimination of FTTS, no longer have to accommodate remote feeds from the mCAN. I think you could get by with 2 CO there and so the feeder could come from somewhere else.

        RogerG_2-1728548299966.png

        On the subject of anger, believe me, this is a minority who are “waiting” for FTTH. How many voice-only customers are there in your community, for example, or those with Internet S who were previously satisfied with 20, then 40mbps. Or those customers who really wanted FTTH in other areas, called again and again and reduced their subscription to 100mbps two months after they were migrated because they didn’t notice any difference compared to before. It’s exactly the same for me, because until 2 days ago I had 100/36 with DSL or 290/70 with Booster and now 10gbps…but the customer experience has remained absolutely the same. Nothing has changed.

        But if we build FTTH, then it should also be migrated asap, because these are the idle investments that Swisscom had to make with the expensive feeder migration. And every network element that I can switch off saves additional electricity and reduces operational effort on the DSL side.

        So, now @andiroid no longer has sleepless nights, knows why “weird” buildings are built for him and why others still have a tube television at home 🤗

        Show original language (German)

        Roger G.
        Swisscom (Schweiz) AG, Product Manager Wireline Access

          @Roger G: Thank you for the detailed explanation, more than I ever expected. 🥇

          I think I now understand that the mCAN was already provided with enough fibers during installation so that some of the customers can now be switched from FTTS to FTTH in line with competition. The feeders there are thick enough for full expansion. In the neighborhoods where this hasn’t happened yet, just not yet.

          I also understand if you want to dismantle local exchanges, because active elements are no longer necessary and it doesn’t matter to me whether the light is fed into the place where you live or in two or three exchanges. The fixed separation between the network groups is no longer technically necessary.

          I also now understand the fact that you want to replace the mCAN first and then replace the PUS. I noticed that when I looked at the FTTH card. But if the fibers already exist up to the mCAN, you can kill two birds with little effort: gaining access to customers and reducing operating costs with (possibly) existing feeders.

          Regarding speed: I think that the average customer experience remains the same. However, I experience a significantly different speed in the home office than on site when I have to “quickly” transfer 500MB from A to B. Or to clone a GIT repo. And the possibility of a symmetrical UL/DL ratio could tempt me to move my backup to a decentralized location every night. My neighbor does stuff with professional video editing for business… There are already use cases where you want more speed in certain areas and are waiting for it. And you can quickly pay more for 1Gbit or even 10. With “more speed” it’s always been like this for me: At first it’s noticeably more slippery, then you get used to it.

          And no, my sleepless nights have another reason. 😜 But yes, I like to nerd out about certain topics. Because it’s fun to understand the “world”. Or because it’s fun to try out new things. That’s why I migrated my tube TV to a smart one a long time ago.

          I hope that your explanations will also help one or two readers.

          Thank you & see you on the next exciting topic!

          Äs Greetings

          Android

          👽

          Show original language (German)

          Just briefly:

          We don’t always want to dismantle headquarters, but we also have to leave some locations because Swisscom has rented them and a new building is planned.

          And because there are enough fibers, I don’t think FTTH was considered during construction. They built FTTS according to the order and probably used the smallest cable, or whatever was available at the time. For example, I also have 14 fibers in the BEP because it was probably the smallest for the DROP.

          We don’t kill flies (the poor ISP…LOL). The communities to be developed are handed over with the usage units to the responsible TU in the area (or KoPa, if cooperation is possible). They only receive a specification from us as to when they have to be finished with the community and are then allowed to plan for themselves using the available resources. The planning data is fed back to us, which then makes it visible in the checker. However, the TU will not connect a house or lay feeders that are not on its list. That’s up to our planners, who have to take rules, regulations, local building projects, prioritizations, etc. into account. Not an easy job!

          Show original language (German)

          Roger G.
          Swisscom (Schweiz) AG, Product Manager Wireline Access

          15 days later

          @Roger G: I see that divine providence has also reached our neighborhood (plan date 2025-02-23). 🤩 I have a follow-up question: Individual neighbors were discovered (already on site by the digging team). The neighbors branch off from the sleeve in the technical room, the BEP (also in the central technical room) is IMHO already set but not yet “wired”. The in-house access through the underground car park (from BEP to OTO) is still missing. That’s why the neighbors in the map are already bright red and the rest of us are not. Do I still have to initiate this, or will it be “automatically” planned and developed between now and March? 😉 A short answer is enough. Thank you! 🎖️

          Show original language (German)

          @andiroid Uhhh…I don’t see anything planned at your address.

          If BEP and P2P fiber are available (status BEP-ready), you can click on “switch to fiber” in mySwisscom. The order is then checked internally and a corresponding email is sent with the next steps. It mentions that the construction partner’s dispatch department will call you to schedule the OTO can.

          Requirement: The fiber optic contract has been signed and returned and an inspection with location of the OTO has been carried out.

          Show original language (German)

          Roger G.
          Swisscom (Schweiz) AG, Product Manager Wireline Access