Vienna
General Information on Austria
Austria as a Business Location
The Economy in Facts & Figures
Infrastructure's readiness to make multimedia services available:
| Country | Phone lines | TV's | PCs |
| Sweden | 68.3 | 48.0 | 17.2 |
| Germany | 48.3 | 55.0 | 14.4 |
| Austria | 46.5 | 48.0 | 10.7 |
| Italy | 42.9 | 45.0 | 7.2 |
According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Austria ranks 12th in worldwide telecommunications development (Sweden: 4th, Germany: 9th, and Italy in 17th place).
Phone lines
At the end of 1994, Austria's telephone network had a total length of 25,000 km (15,500 miles). About two thirds of the switches are digitized. The digital network (OES) is also used for data transmission and provides the basis for the ISDN services offered by the PTT. Thus, not only large companies, but also small and medium-sized companies are able to transfer, voice, data, and graphics. 2
Fiber trunks
The Austrian PTT's copper network comprised 15,000 km (9,300 miles)
at the end of 1995. Fiber trunk lines amounted to 4700 km (2920 miles).
3
The PTT uses the leading SDH technology which is a necessity
to offer state-of-the-art infrastructure.
4
Austria's broad-band network OE-Net, using fiber optics and Synchronized Digital Technology
(SDH), comprises STM-4 (622 Mbps) and STM-1 (155 Mbps) systems. In 1995,
after a public bidding process, a contract was awarded to add an optical
STM-16 (2.5 Gbps) system with cross-connect functionality within the nodes
in order to meet the increasing demand to transfer large amounts of data.
5
The Austrian Railroad Company OeBB uses a 4800 km (2980 miles) long distance cable network
for its own telecommunication needs,
with 3700 km (2300 miles) local networks surrounding railroad stations, and 600 km (370 miles) fiber trunk.
Unlike the PTT and the cable TV providers, the OeBB has no links to households. Thus, when the
market is deregulated, it will compete for large corporate clients along inter-city lines.
6
The Verbundkonzern, Austria's only national utilities provider, plans to compete with the PTT
in 1998. Together with the local utility companies which provide cable services and formed
United Telekom Austria in 1994, the network comprised 1,100 km (690 miles) in 1994.
7
This network can be connected to the German provider RWE, a utility company
that only recently teamed up with VIAG, another utility company, and British Telecom
to compete with Deutsche Telekom. The network comprises 8,000 km of fiber trunk.
8
Other links will be available to Switzerland, Italy, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovenia.
Another option for cooperation is the Austrian Railroad company OeBB.
The local utility companies use their network to provide cable TV services and have the
ability to expand their network to households along electrical cable lines.
High speed lines and services
In December 1994, there were 3,859 basic ISDN connections (+426.9% vs. Dec. 1993) and 90 multiple ISDN connections (64 kbps). 9 The number of ISDN connections is rapidly growing. The Austrian PTT offers international ISDN-traffic with Belgium, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the UK, and the United States. 10 Videoconferencing is also offered via ISDN (384 kbps). There are 3 public videoconferencing terminals (2 Mbps-Codecs) for worldwide communication. For large data transfers, companies can use the Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) which operates at 34Mbps (PDH) and 140 Mbps (SDH). On September 6, 1994, the first ATM node was opened in Vienna. This node represents the Austrian integration into the European Information Highway. 11 For small data transfers, Datex-L and DDL (14.688; +35.4%), Datex-P (16.751; +9.6%), and DS2000 (974; +21.1%) are used. 12
Cellular systems
With 280,000 users of wireless communication devices, Austria ranks in the upper quartile among European countries (35 users per 1000 inhabitants). With the first step to implement a GSM-network, Austria has increased the capacity to 150,000 users. Two more steps to increase the capacity are in the planning stage, resulting in a 450,000 user network. 13 At the end of 1994, the Austrian PTT operated the B, C, D, and E (GSM) cellular networks. Some 100,000 customers used pagers. The B and C nets are used for car phones (some 46,000 per Dec. 1994, down from 53,000 per Dec. 1993) users, the D-net for portable phones (220,000 users, up from 167,000), and the latest E-net (GSM) was used by 13,000 people (500 in Dec. 1993), with a capacity of 150,000 (to be expanded to 450,000). 14
Satellite systems
There are 6 satellite systems in Austria, serving a variety of customers. The Erdefunkstelle Aflenz has four antennas which use INTELSAT or EUTELSAT systems for international telephony, data transfer, business services, or occasional TV broadcasting. SDV-Erdefunkstelle Wien offers three services, i.e., direct satellite broadcasting, videoconferencing, VSAT, and AudioCast. EBU-TV Erdefunkstelle Wien is mainly used by the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation. SDV-Erdefunkstelle Innsbruck is used for international videoconferencing. The PTT also owns a transportable system which is used for occasional TV broadcasting. Wireless communication uses INMARSAT terminals and the EUTELSAT system. 15 The utilities companies own a vast amount of satellite dishes for the use of cable and satellite TV. To increase coverage, they have obtained satellite dish farms in order to increase their services. 16
Submarine cables
Apart from world-wide satellite communications systems, the Austrian PTT is a partner in 40 submarine cables to overseas which are used for international long-distance calls. 17
Cable TV
67% of Austrian households receive either cable TV or satellite TV services. There are some 270 cable providers in Austria which own a fiber trunk/coax cable network and a satellite infrastructure that provides a basis for competition once the market is deregulated. The Viennese Telekabel presented the project Telekabel 2000 in 1994 and plans to offer 60 programs, with Pay TV and Pay-Per-View, and interactive services, as well as computer connections and HDTV-reception. 18
Public networks
The Austrian Public MAN Network currently links the main Austrian cities with 34Mbps lines. The MAN infrastructure is based on DQDB. There is also a 140Mbps ring within Vienna, the capital of Austria. Since September 1994, the Austrian Public ATM Network consists of one ATM node in Vienna with international links to Germany (155Mbps, SDH) and Switzerland (34Mbps, PDH) (cite PTT, p23), and additional links to Linz and Graz (155Mbps, SDH), and Italy (34Mbps, PDH). ACOnet is the Austrian academic computer network, currently based on the 34Mbps MAN Network of the Austrian PTT, and interconnects all Austrian universities. It provides access to the Austrian library database (BIBOS) which covers all Austrian scientific libraries and provides the access facilities for the scientific community to the Austrian National Host.
Private networks
The Austrian Sparkassen Datendienst Aktiengesellschaft (Spardat) owns Austria's largest private network. On September 27, the Austrian PTT and Spardat began a cooperation to use Spardat's network for additional capacity and to offer Internet services, leasing lines from the PTT. 19
Executives' perception about home country's infrastructure
Executive Survey:
20 1 = No; 10 = Yes
| Country | Sweden | Germany | Austria | Italy |
| Is tech infrastructure developed faster than in other countries? | 6.94 | 6.27 | 6.28 | 4.06 |
| Do your countries' telephone companies meet business needs? | 9.51 | 7.00 | 6.61 | 4.87 |
Next chapter: Privatization and Deregulation
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