High-speed Internet tests to begin next month

The pan-European data communications company, KPNQwest, is to begin a high-speed Internet broadband trial in Switzerland.

The trial will begin in Geneva and Zurich on July 17, and will be extended to other metropolitan areas if successful.

During the two-month experiment, KPNQwest will introduce a technology known as Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL), which brings high bandwidth information to homes and businesses using ordinary copper lines and offers access to the Internet as much as 100 times faster than traditional services.

ADSL is one of several Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technologies. KPNQwest is hoping to take advantage of the deregulised market in Switzerland, which now enables competition with the market leader, Swisscom.

KPNQwest is a joint venture of the Dutch carrier, KPN Telecom, and the United States long-distance carrier, QWEST Communications International. The company is building a high-speed fibre optic data network across Europe.

So far, it has launched DSL services in Finland, Germany and Sweden.

swissinfo with agencies