Weko ensures competition on fiber-optic network
The Competition Commission Weko opens an investigation against Swisscom. According to the Commission, there is a risk that Swisscom will exclude competitors from the market when building the fiber-optic network. It therefore decides to take precautionary measures.
Swisscom intends to further expand its fiber-optic network and connect more than 1.5 million additional households and businesses with fiber. In areas that it is expanding on its own, it is changing the design of the network in such a way that competitors no longer have direct access to the network infrastructure. Swisscom is thus changing the existing market structure and presumably limiting the innovation and business opportunities of its competitors, the Weko said in a statement. End customers, for their part, could be restricted in their choice of providers and product diversity as a result.
Based on the information currently available, it appears credible to the Weko that Swisscom is abusing a dominant position with this behavior. The Commission is therefore immediately taking precautionary measures to prohibit the telecoms provider from denying competitors access to end-to-end lines when expanding the fiber-optic network.
According to its own statements, the Weko is now investigating in greater depth the extent to which Swisscom is abusing its dominant position by refusing network access.
