Swisscom exemplary, but what limits?

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Swisscom repairs damage caused on a building site by a contractor.

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Swisscom repairs damage caused on a building site by a contractor.

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Since Wednesday, Swisscom technicians have been taking turns 24 hours a day in the Bulle region to repair connections damaged by a construction machine, as briefly announced here. In this paschal and coronavirus period, the work of the very devoted employees of the blue giant gives the opportunity to question certain limits … which it is difficult to overcome.

Following this accident, described here by Swisscom, and as shown by certain comments published in this column, the question of the reliability of telecom networks, in particular that of Swisscom, is once again a major concern for the population… ‘200% digital hour, without telecom networks, we can no longer work, pay, buy, play or learn … especially in this pandemic period!

Redundancy for more security…

So what to do? In well-managed companies with impeccable governance, risk management services recommend in particular redundancies in essential IT infrastructures, data servers and access to telecom networks. Concretely, this means in particular that contracts are signed with several fixed operators, in particular…

You would think this precaution is the ultimate solution. Well no. A few years ago, I was told about a large national service company that had signed contracts with UPC and Swisscom to provide internet access and secure IP telephony. Smart, since the two backbones are different, even if we cannot exclude the use of common fibers, sometimes rented …

Like Bulle, a construction machine…

As in the case of Bulle (the current status of the breakdown), a construction machine destroyed optical fibers during work. Unfortunately, the lines of the two operators in question passed in the same place … The company was therefore deprived of internet and telephone on one of its main sites for about a day, the time to repair …

This example shows that it is not possible to ensure 100% reliability. Two conclusions can be drawn, however. The private individual probably has an interest in owning a smartphone in addition to his fixed line, if possible on the networks of several different operators. A measure not always easy to put into practice.

Which mobile network used?

Indeed, it is still necessary to know the antenna network used by its virtual mobile operator … UPC, for example, rarely indicates that it is dependent on Swisscom infrastructure for mobile. Swisscom’s fiber and mobile networks are widely used by its competitors, who sometimes struggle to invest …

More fundamentally, we can wonder about how to build, secure or operate telecom networks. Again, to what extent should we not provide for some redundancies or other measures, which has a cost … Obviously, in the current context of price wars, it seems unlikely that the politician, indignant at times by outages of the blue ogre who affected the emergency services, agrees to pay the price…

Xavier Studer