FRIBOURG NETWORK FREIBURG
FRÉDÉRIC MAURON
MANAGING DIRECTOR OF FTTH FR SA
What is the mission of ftth fr?
ftth fr is a private company, set up in 2012 and jointly owned by the Canton of Fribourg and three of the canton’s electricity suppliers: Groupe E, Gruyère Energie and IB-Murten. Its mission is to install and deploy a fiber-optic network across the canton so as to prevent the emergence of an urban-rural digital divide. Our initials stand for fiber-to-the-home.
Is the project making headway?
Almost one third of the 150,000 homes in the canton of Fribourg now have a fiber-optic connection, though most of these are in urban areas. In 2017 and 2018, we plan to focus our efforts on areas where the population density is low. The need is particularly acute in these places due to already poor telecom coverage. Our ultimate goal is to connect more than 90% of residential properties and 100% of companies to the network. We"ve already invested around CHF 27 million of our total CHF 200 million budget.
Why has fiber optic technology become so important?
It is vital for a country like Switzerland to have powerful connections: broadband access is now as important as the electricity or water supply, and demand for bandwidth doubles every 18 months or so. Unlike copper which is still preferred by certain operators, FTTH is the only technology that has the long-term capability of absorbing this increase in data traffic. For ftth fr shareholders, this project is about investing in the future.