Sweden reveals new broadband ambition

05 Nov 2009 | 19.13 Europe/London

The Swedish government says it wants to provide 100 Mbps broadband connections to 90% of homes and businesses by 2020. The pronouncement was part of a much-needed update to the country’s broadband strategy, which was previously set down in 1999.

"My vision is clear. Sweden should have world-class broadband. It is good for Sweden and for Swedish companies' competitiveness," said Åsa Torstensson, Minister for Infrastructure.

Sweden is no slouch in the broadband stakes. It already has the highest quality broadband in Europe, and the third best in the world, according to the recent Broadband Quality Study by Cisco and Oxford University’s Saïd Business School.

But no country can afford to rest on its laurels. Digital initiatives such as e-health and e-government require that everyone gets online, and right now the figure for broadband penetration in Sweden stands at 89 percent, according to Torstensson

“Although broadband access is generally good in Sweden, so we still have thousands of households and enterprises in practice have no access to broadband today. Sweden is a sparsely populated elongated country that makes it costly to invest in infrastructure, which need a certain customer base for profitability. The need for broadband is as great in rural areas as in other parts of the country,” she said.

Torstensson pledged that by 2020, 90 percent of households and businesses should have broadband of at least 100 Mbps, with 40 percent of the population getting those speeds by 2015.

It’s worth pointing out that 100 Mbps is a “wish list” item – comparable to the Digital Britain aim of “superfast broadband for 90 percent by 2017” – while the minimum service that users can legally expect in Sweden, as defined by the universal service commitment, is currently set very low; and future service levels have yet to be decided.

“There is also a basic level of everyone to participate in the information society. These include the minimum level of so-called universal service citizens are entitled to by law. In addition to telephony, a sufficient connection to the Internet, not least because the citizens will have adequate access to various Government online. The basic level of a functional Internet access, which currently is 20 kbit/s, needs to be reviewed.”

Many people will be curious about how the Swedish national broadband strategy will be funded. Torstensson's statement reads:

"The development must be market driven. State's primary role is to ensure that markets function efficiently and that the conditions for doing business is good throughout the country."

Sound familiar?