6.2.4 Telecommunications in fixed networks

Fixed network services are characterised by terminal equipment which is at a fixed location. It does not matter, in this connection, whether the data transmission to or from the subscriber is handled by means of line transmission technology or by means of radio communications.

In the access section of a fixed telecommunications network that has grown in the course of time, such as that of Telekom Austria, a copper wire pair ("twisted pair cable") is allocated to every subscriber. This twisted pair cable connects the subscriber's network socket to the nearest switching exchange in the core network of the network operator. The length of such a line varies from 10s of meters to several kilometres.

New network operators will also use alternative technologies in order to link customers to their network, given the costs of building one's own lines and when leaving aside the possibility of unbundling the subscriber lines of Telekom Austria². One option in this connection is the WLL technology ("Wireless Local Loop"), where the distance between subscriber and the closest switching or concentrating exchange is bridged by radio technology.

Other options are to use the cable television networks or to use energy supply lines ("power line") - which was undergoing field-testing during the period under review.

The core section of a network consists of the individual switching exchanges and the transmission lines between the switching exchanges. The connections between the switching exchanges are often implemented as broadband glass fibre lines and with redundancy, so that natural disasters will not destroy the sub-connections and thus disturb the availability of telecommunications services.

While, as a rule, new network operators will only have few switching exchanges, on account of the still small number of their directly connected end-users, but also because of the use of modern access network systems that allow an economical link-up of subscribers from major distances, the opposite is true for the network of Telekom Austria for reasons of its historical development.