Swisscom said its Capex (capital spending) increased 9.4 percent to CHF 1,117 million or $1,224 million in the first half of 2014.

Swisscom CEO Urs Schaeppi said the increase in Capex was mainly due to FTTS (fiber-to-the-street) roll out.

In Switzerland, capital expenditure increased 8.9 percent to CHF 769 million due to broadband network expansion.

At Fastweb the increase in capital expenditure by EUR 28 million or 10.9 percent to EUR 284 million was attributable to the expansion of the fiber-optic network in Italy.

Swisscom Capex for 2014 is expected to remain unchanged at around $2.6 billion or CHF 2.4 billion.

Capital expenditure for Swisscom Switzerland rose 6.1 percent to CHF 677 million (+6.8 percent in the second quarter) due to increased investment in network infrastructure.

“Capex in H1 increased by approximately CHF 100 million to CHF 1.2 billion in the first half, CHF 33 million come from Swisscom Switzerland, result of the higher investment in the FTH – FTTS. We can deliver both FTH and FTTS to 1 million households in Switzerland and we have a LTE coverage of 94 percent from Tamedia,” said Schaeppi.

Capex of Fastweb increased by CHF 31 million due to the rollout of our fiber-to-the-street projects. The other Capex increased by CHF 21.6 million mainly driven by higher investments of 8 percent and cloud services.

Swisscom CFO said Mario Rossi said: “On the fiber-to-the-home, we have currently slightly above 100,000 fiber customers. We see ongoing continuing growth in FTTH sales.”

Meanwhile, Swisscom revenue rose 1.9 percent to CHF 5,700 million in the first half of 2014, while net income dropped 1.6 percent to CHF 806 million.

Baburajan K
[email protected]