Swisscom To Invest EUR400 Million In Italy Broadband Network

Telecommunications company Swisscom AG (SCMN.VX) Thursday said it will invest 400 million Euros by 2016 to expand the broadband infrastructure of its Italian subsidiary Fastweb.

MAIN FACTS:

- Fastweb will continue to invest in fibre-optic expansion in Italy over the coming years in order to expand its own infrastructure and increase competitiveness.

- Fastweb is focusing on rolling out fibre-to-the-street (FTTS) to complement its existing fibre to the home (FTTH) network.

- Fastweb's modern fibreoptic network has already rolled out fibre to-the-home to around two million households in Italy's urban areas.

- Fastweb plans to invest some EUR 130 million in FTTS expansion by the end of 2013 and thus significantly expand its own fibre-optic infrastructure.

- In total around EUR400 million will be invested by 2016 in the further expansion of Italy's FTTS infrastructure in order to provide faster broadband to around 20% of Italy's homes.

- Swisscom's board of directors support Fastweb's plans and Thursday approved the funds required for the first stage of expansion.

- The additional investments will not affect Swisscom's dividend payout policy or the CHF 2.2 billion of investment scheduled for this year, the company said.

-Zurich Bureau, Dow Jones Newswires, [phone]; [e-mail]

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