The Broadband Survey 2010 - PTS-ER-2011:10

16/03/2011

The Broadband Survey for 2010 conducted by the Swedish Post and Telecom Agency (PTS) shows that 44 per cent of all households and businesses in Sweden have access to at least 100 Mbps broadband. This means that the sub-objective of the Government’s Broadband Strategy for Sweden – 100 Mbps for 40 per cent of households and businesses by 2015 – has been achieved.

Access to 100 Mbps broadband’ means that households and businesses, within a short time frame and without any special costs, could order an Internet subscription via fibre or a cable television network upgraded to DOCSIS 3.0 in October 2010. *) In the assessment of PTS, the proportion of households and workplaces with access to 100 Mbps increased by three to five percentage points between October 2009 and October 2010, both as a consequence of fibre being rolled out in the access network and cable television networks being upgraded to DOCSIS 3.0. However, the Agency cannot put a value on the exact increase, as there is no detailed supporting information for such an assessment. The proportion of households and businesses in Sweden residing in, or in the proximity of, a property that is connected to either a fibre or cable television network increased from 51 per cent to 54 per cent between October 2009 and October 2010. This indicates that the preconditions are favourable for a further increase in the access to 100 Mbps in the next few years. However, PTS will produce a separate report for the Government no later than by 31 May 2011 on the follow-up of the sub-objective of the Government’s Broadband Strategy for Sweden of 100 Mbps for 90 per cent of households and businesses in 2020, together with how access to IT infrastructure will continue to develop considering trends in technology and the market. **)

PTS’s Broadband Survey for 2010 also shows that there was a reduction in the number of households and businesses with no access whatsoever to broadband – from 2,800 in October 2009 to 1,100 in October 2010. This reduction was primarily due to an improvement in mobile broadband coverage via CDMA2000 in the 450MHz band. The findings from the survey are presented in more detail on www.statistik.pts.se, including data at a municipal level and broken down between highly urbanised and sparsely populated regions.

Table 1 Findings from PTS’s Broadband Survey for 2010

*) Less than three per cent of all households in Sweden had active 100 Mbps Internet connections at the end of 2010.

**) File ref. 10-10995/9.69, ‛Regleringsbrev för budgetår 2011 avseende Post- och telestyrelsen’ [Terms of Reference for the 2011 budget year regarding the Swedish Post and Telecom Agency]