Swisscom offers free TV for any of its DSL customers

Swisscom on Monday launched a new promotional deal in which any of its existing DSL customers will get a free introductory TV service package.

The introductory TV offer, which serves up TV as part of a triple play bundle service package, will provide users the ability to access over 60 TV channels in addition to 22 in HD.  

In addition to offering free TV, the telco will offer customers with a DSL start or mini subscription higher broadband speeds from 2 Mbps and 5 Mbps, respectively. Set to be completed in January 2013, the current subscription fee will not change.

Since launching the service in 2006, Swisscom has garnered over 728,000 TV customers and now it is giving monthly DSL subscribers a way to get the service as part of a bundle. Customers can also access TV services on their wireless devices, including smartphones and tablets.

This promotion comes at a time when Swisscom is looking at the future of its broadband last mile network. Earlier this month, it announced that it began trials to evaluate Fiber to the Street (FTTS), or what is more commonly referred to as Fiber to the cabinet (FTTC) or Fiber to the node (FTTN), in the municipality of Flerden.

While it will take time to see what kind of uptake the telco gets from its TV promotion, a growing number of European and domestic U.S. telcos have reported IPTV service has actually helped drive up broadband data adoption.

U.S. telcos like AT&T (NYSE: T) and CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL), for instance, both reported in Q3 that they saw a greater majority of customers who signed up for video taking broadband service as well. AT&T said in Q3 2012 that 90 percent of new U-verse TV customers took AT&T U-verse High Speed Internet in the third quarter and about three-fourths of AT&T U-verse TV subscribers have a triple- or quad-play option. Likewise, CenturyLink reported during the same quarter that over 90 percent of its IPTV customers also bundled TV service with a broadband connection.

For more:
- see the release

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