Broadband in Sweden 2005 - PTS-ER-2005:24

30/06/2005

In accordance with the Government Terms of Reference, the Swedish National Post and Telecom Agency (PTS) has been given the assignment of reporting on the progress of broadband development in Sweden. An assessment of how rapidly the development is occurring in different parts of Sweden and an estimate of the number of subscribers shall also be submitted. The assignment has been accomplished by means of a questionnaire survey of the Swedish municipalities and the companies which supply network capacity and broadband subscriptions.

The results of the survey show that broadband development continued at a higher rate during 2004 compared with the previous year. Above all, access to broadband has increased due to the upgrading of the copper network to various xDSL solutions such as ADSL, but development by means of fibre and radio also increased at a higher rate than before. The increase in the fibre and radio networks is mainly attributable to the interurban networks. PTS estimates that about 40 per cent of Swedish households currently have the opportunity to connect to broadband.

There was an increase in the use of broadband during 2004, and the number of households with broadband now amounts to 1.2 million compared with 0.9 million the previous year. This means that 27 per cent of households now have some form of broadband connection. The increase has been particularly strong for connections with at least 2 Mbps downstream. Expressed in absolute figures, the number of households with at least 2 Mbps almost tripled during 2004.

As in previous years, access to broadband varies throughout Sweden but the differences between large and small districts declined over the past year. The results of last year’s survey showed that all municipalities had connection to both the national backbone network and interurban networks. Since January 2005 there are also local networks in all municipalities. On the other hand, at the urban area level, 120 districts are still without connection to an interurban network. Of these, 95 per cent have fewer than 500 inhabitants. Skåne, Blekinge and Västra Götaland have the largest proportion of urban areas without connection to an interurban network. Since January 2005 all urban areas with more than 3,000 inhabitants have a local network in some part of the urban area. In urban areas with between 1,000 and 3,000 inhabitants just over 98 per cent have a local network. Since January 2004, with the exception of larger urban areas where development is already extensive, the proportion of urban areas with local networks has increased greatly for all categories of urban areas throughout Sweden. By far the largest increase has occurred in urban areas with a population of 250 to 499 people.

One thing that has contributed to the progress in the smaller urban areas is the government funding, which can be applied for by the Swedish municipalities. Almost all municipalities have chosen to use this funding, which has primarily gone to districts with fewer than 3,000 inhabitants.