UPC Switzerland

UPC Switzerland GmbH
legal form	GmbH
founding	1994
Seat	Wallisellen , Switzerland
management	Baptiest Coopmans ( CEO )
Number of employees	more than 1,500 (2018)
sales	1.296 billion CHF (2018)
Branch	telecommunications
Website	www.upc.ch

UPC Schweiz GmbH is the largest cable network operator in Switzerland with around 2 million customers . Cablecom, which was the name until 2016, was created in 1994 through the merger of several cable network companies and has been a subsidiary of Liberty Global since 2005 .

High-speed cable router modem Connect-Box with improved WLAN function (2016)

Company data

As of June 30, 2019, UPC was supplying 1.1 million customers in Switzerland with more than 2.4 million services (approx. 1,041,000 television, 677,000 broadband Internet, 511,000 landline and 173,000 mobile customers). UPC currently employs around 1,500 people in Switzerland.

history

In the 1930s, the first cable network operators came into being, transporting several radio programs into households via cable. One of these cable network providers was Rediffusion SA, founded in 1931 , which distributed radio broadcasts using wire broadcasts. From the end of the 1950s, Rediffusion SA broadcast the first television programs in black and white from Uetliberg . In 1994, Rediffusion SA and other independent cable network companies became Cablecom, which belonged to Siemens , VEBA and Swisscom .

In 1998, Cablecom integrated the Internet service provider SwissOnline. In the following years, the cable operator continued to grow by buying cable network companies (e.g. Balcab and Sitel). With these takeovers, Cablecom expanded its network in large parts of Switzerland. In 2000 the previous owners sold Cablecom to the British-American NTL for 5.8 billion Swiss francs. In the following years the operative business could be improved sustainably. After NTL's financial difficulties, Cablecom sold it to a group of banks and private investors in 2003.

The owners of Cablecom planned to go public in mid-October 2005 . After Liberty Global Europe, a wholly owned subsidiary of Liberty Global , bought Cablecom for 2.8 billion on September 30, 2005, the IPO was canceled. In the following years, Cablecom invested in network expansion. In 2007 the company launched high definition television (HDTV). Two years later, Cablecom introduced its first combination offers (package with Internet, telephony and television). Digital television was initially encrypted and could only be received with an additional device (SetTopBox) until Cablecom launched the DigiCard in 2010, which at least enabled customers to use the CI slot built into the television for decryption without an additional device to have to connect to the television. Cablecom has been offering video-on-demand with 3D content since the beginning of 2011 .

In April 2011 Cablecom was renamed UPC Cablecom. As a result of the rebranding, a new logo similar to a lotus blossom was launched instead of the red wrench.

On January 14, 2013, UPC introduced the Horizon set-top box . This system is a set-top box for digital and HD TV , combined with an Internet router with W-LAN , IP telephony and a hard disk recorder .

On August 1, 2014, Liberty Global merged the two sister companies UPC Cablecom and UPC Austria into a joint regional organization based in Zurich.

Since May 25, 2016, UPC Cablecom has only been called UPC.

On August 1, 2018, UPC Austria was taken over by T-Mobile Austria and the new Magenta Telekom brand identity was presented in May 2019 .

On September 1, 2018, Severina Pascu took over the CEO agendas from Eric Tveter , who had been CEO since 2009.

On February 27, 2019, it was officially announced that UPC would be acquired by Sunrise . The competition commission approved the takeover in September 2019 without any conditions. Next, the Sunrise shareholders should have agreed to a necessary capital increase , but since the largest Sunrise shareholder Freenet did not want to participate, the takeover failed.

The Dutchman Baptiest Coopmans has been CEO of UPC Switzerland since February 1, 2020 , taking over the position from Severina Pascu .

Products

Digital TV and radio

UPC distributes digital TV and radio stations. The foundation stone for this was laid in 1999 when 32 new digital channels were broadcast parallel to the analogue offer. In November 2012, UPC lifted the basic encryption for the basic TV offering of 55 digital TV and 100 radio stations. Despite the digitization , at least 36 TV and 34 radio stations were broadcast analogue via the UPC cable network, depending on the region. The Federal Council has drawn up a must-carry list for analogue channels as part of the Federal Act on Radio and Television. This contained channels specified by the Federal Council, which UPC and other cable network operators had to broadcast in analogue throughout Switzerland. This must-carry rule was adapted due to the change in the DETEC Ordinance on Radio and Television of 13 May 2013. Then only the SRG channels, the licensed regional TV programs and the youth channel Joiz had to be broadcast analogue. This obligation ended on December 31, 2014 (Joiz: March 21, 2015) or even earlier if the cable network operator offered a basic offer without additional costs and a digital / analog converter . In autumn 2014, UPC completely digitized Central Switzerland as part of a pilot project - on July 7, 2015, the last analog channels from upc cablecom were finally shut down in Ticino . With the abolition of the basic encryption, the free choice of end device (TV, receiver, recorder, DigiCard) has become possible. To use the basic digital offer, you need an active cable connection, an antenna cable and a television set with an integrated DVB-C receiver or a converter for older devices.

In order to receive additional digital offers via the cable network, you need a receiver - either a set top box (recorder / receiver) or a smart card.

Happy Home

At the beginning of 2018, UPC launched the “Happy Home” combination subscriptions, replacing the packages previously known as “Connect & Play”. These are available in three different versions: Happy Home 100, 300 or 600, the digits of which are equivalent to the download speeds measured in Mbit / s (the maximum speed as of March 31, 2019 was 600 Mbit / s). The Happy Home packages include Internet access, UPC TV and a landline connection - with an option that includes calls within Switzerland as well as calls to other EU countries. At the same time, in order to improve the customer's WiFi connection, the UPC Connect app was introduced, which simplifies or enables setting up the Connect Box and scanning the WiFi coverage in one's own home. In order to further expand the signal strength of the in-house WLAN, hotspots can be set up in other rooms using powerline adapters - using the power line.

UPC TV and MySports

MySports logo

In October 2018, UPC TV (as the successor to the Horizon HD Recorder) was launched, the company's new TV box - including features such as voice control , personal recommendations, a "one search for everything" function and the personal profiles introduced in April 2019. For users, UPC TV is not limited to the TV box. TV can also be viewed on the go using the UPC TV app independently of the platform. As of March 31, 2019, 107,000 UPC TV boxes were already on the market across Switzerland.

UPC TV Box (2018)

The sports channel MySports, on the other hand, was launched in September 2017 and offers a wide range of different sports, above all the Swiss National League in ice hockey and Formula E. In August 2018, a “Best of” channel was launched with MySports One, available for all UPC TV customers. MySports Go, which was launched in September 2018, is the result of a partnership between MySports and Sky and is available as an OTT solution for owners of the Sky Sport app.

With MyPrime , UPC was the first company in Switzerland to introduce the flat rate model for films and series. At the end of 2016, more than 10,000 content such as classic films, series, documentaries and children's programs were available to customers in German-speaking Switzerland , French -speaking Switzerland and Ticino.

Internet

UPC offers a broadband Internet connection via its cable network (fiber optic cable network). The company has 686,000 customers in this area (as of March 31, 2019). The cable network consists of 95% glass fibers and 5% coaxial cable , so-called Hybrid Fiber Coax (HFC). The Internet service is distributed using the DOCSIS 3.0 transmission standard .

Since November 2012, UPC's cable connection has also included a digital basic offer for existing customers with Internet access of 2 Mbit / s as well as a TV offer, and since January 2015 a landline telephone connection. The UPC TV app can also be used with it.

Wi-Free

Since autumn 2014, UPC has been offering its customers Wi-Free, the largest free WLAN network in Switzerland. At around 500,000 locations in Switzerland and over 10 million locations in Europe and the USA, UPC customers can surf the web free of charge via smartphone, tablet etc.

Telephony

landline

UPC has had a voice over cable offering since July 2003 . 514,000 customers (as of March 31, 2019) are calling via their cable.

Cellular offer

UPC has been offering existing customers a mobile phone service since April 2014. UPC has been offering its mobile communications services on Swisscom's existing mobile communications network (previously via Salt ) since January 2019 , making it an MVNO ( Mobile Virtual Network Operator ) provider. Apart from the use of the Swisscom mobile phone antennas, the company provides all services independently. In the first quarter of 2019, 173,000 people had a UPC mobile phone subscription.

Business customers

UPC Business has been offering communication solutions for companies - consisting of small and medium-sized companies , cantonal banks , hospitals, public administrations, etc. - since 1999 and plays a strong role in the Swiss B2B market. In the financial sector, the company provides more than 50 percent of all cantonal banks with connectivity and managed services. Other customers include SV (Schweiz) AG (IP telephony solutions and LAN management) and the BKW Group (software-defined WAN).

Competitive situation

Combination offers

UPC's strongest competitor is Swisscom . At UPC, such bundles consist of television, Internet and telephony services. Similar offers are available from Swisscom and, since December 2011, from Sunrise. Salt, in turn, entered the fixed network business in March 2018 with "Salt Fiber".

watch TV

UPC is in second place with 1,060 million TV customers. (As of March 31, 2019). This is equivalent to a 26 percent share of the Swiss TV market. Swisscom is the front runner in this category with just under 35 percent. Sunrise, on the other hand, is in the single-digit range on the TV market with a share of 5 percent. The other cable network operators, like UPC, add up to 26 percent. The remaining 8 percent are occupied by satellite and antenna.

Internet

UPC's fiber optic cable network reaches around 3 million households in Switzerland and enables nationwide Internet from 600 Mbit / s downstream at 60 Mbit / s upstream (as of September 2018) - both in the city and in the country. The maximum speed of the Internet connections from Swisscom and Sunrise is currently 100 Mbit / s (VDSL) and 1 Gbit / s (FTTH). The speeds at UPC Switzerland are made possible by a hybrid network consisting mainly of glass fiber and a small part of coaxial cable. As a result, the existing Internet capacities on the existing network can be expanded continuously and as required - by means of frequency expansion or the bundling of channels. The status quo of 500 Mbit / s can therefore be adapted to future customer needs - without the need for additional construction work on the streets or in the houses.

Telephony

UPC, Sunrise and Swisscom offer subscriptions for both landline and mobile telephony. All providers have special rates, which vary depending on the type of subscription.