What does it take to build an ISP in Switzerland. Can we at ETH build one
In 2003, the Swiss Federal Council modified the Decree on Telecommunications Services to mandate the “unbundling of the local loop”. This move effectively allows any company to use the last-mile infrastructure (the part of the network interconnecting end users’ homes to the main network) built over many years by market-dominant service providers such as Swisscom. While such access ain’t free, the bill mandates it to be at “cost-based” prices, so “relatively” cheap. The bill drastically increased the amount of competition available within the Swiss Internet Service Provider (ISP) ecosystem, which is a ultimately good thing for the end user.
Swisscom provides a description of their corresponding wholesale connectivity services alongside with some of the costs on their website. As an illustration, activating a new line costs, as of January 2025, around 43.20 CHF (one-time setup fee), while running an activated line costs 14.80 CHF per month.
In this project, we want to explore the feasibility of building our own ISP on top existing last-mile infrastructure to provide Internet connectivity to, amongst others, ETH staff, students, and alumni at a fair price and using the latest technologies. (Here we imagine having ETH students themselves operating the network). Besides the societal benefits, having our own ISP would also allow us to collect precious production network data, something which is oftentimes impossible to do for us researchers.
The project would involve exploring this question alongside several dimensions including:
Technical: A first part of the project would involve analyzing the documentation and the specifications of wholesale connectivity services and understand the technical requirements behind them. What kind of connections are supported? What kind of devices are required on the ISP side? How many would we need? Where would there need to be located (e.g. in which physical colocations)? What technologies should be supported? After that, one could start thinking about the requirements on the end-user setup (what kind of set-top box would be required?) alongside with routing and forwarding requirements. How much connectivity could we hope to get at local Internet eXchange Points (IXPs)? How much capacity should be plan for, etc. It would be also interesting to perform an analysis of how different Swiss-based ISPs currently rely upon the local loop of others.
Economical: A second part of the project would involve evaluating the variable and fixed costs associated to building and running such an ISP. (Running an ISP ain’t cheap.) Here the goal is to come up with a rough, but nonetheless realistic, budget.
Legal: A third part of the project would be to explore the legal obligations surrounding ISPs in Switzerland, starting with the ones established by the Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM). What are the important legal requirements to comply to (e.g. when it comes to net neutrality, user privacy, or lawful interception)?
The large scope of the project means it is probably better suited for a master thesis. That said, the depth of the analysis could be modulated to fit a semester thesis for a highly-motivated student.
Requirements:
- The project is exploratory; a good amount of independence is expected from the student;
- Good command of network technologies. Some familiarity with network hardware would be a plus;
- At least some affinity with legal aspects: a good deal of the project will involve understanding/summarizing the regulations around building an Swiss-based ISP.
- Some basic business/economic knowledge would be a plus.
Supervisors
