Fibre to the farm alive and well in northern Sweden

The post below is taken from the TUANZ blog and was written by TUANZ CEO, Ernie Newman

"Did you know that 200 villages in remote northern Sweden are covered by a fibre to the home network, with 80% coverage of the region’s homes and farms? That was my biggest “wow” from a riveting day here in Stockholm where I’ve been at a seminar on “An Open Telecoms Society” organized jointly by INTUG and the Swedish telecommunications user association, Telekomförening NTK. Lars Hedberg,Secretary General of the Swedish Urban Network Assn, was my informant and for me, the stand out speaker of the day. He’s previously “been” to New Zealand by video link where he presented at a conference in Wellington several years ago. Isolated areas aside, urban fibre networks have been the key to Sweden’s attaining tenth spot in the OECD for broadband uptake – up there with the likes of Korea despite the fact that northern Sweden has a population more sparse than the Sahara Desert. Over 150 of Sweden’s 290 municipalities have urban MUSH networks. About 85% of these are owned by the power lines company, council, or both, while the balance are typically public private partnerships. Fibre is just everywhere! Here in Stockholm there is 1 million KM of fibre owned by Stokab, one of the largest metro nets in the world. Stokab is in the dark fibre, open access business, selling to all comers including incumbent TeliaSonera. No wonder the broadband in my hotel room is super-fast and free. By the end of next year 100,000 apartments in Stockholm will have speeds of 100Mbps, and this will extend to 400,000 (90% of Stockholm’s apartments) by 2012. I asked Lars about the factors that had taken Sweden to the forefront. Strong early government leadership in the form of tax breaks for the purchase of home computers were key, he said. Also the timing, in that the initiative got in early before there was a whole lot of privately-owned fibre to complicate matters. But the point that blew me away was when Lars cited Sweden’s low population density as a key success factor. On the face of it you’d think it was a hurdle, but he said the imperative to get heavily into distance learning was a crucial driver in the project’s success. Ever so logical when you think about it, and what an insight for New Zealand! I’ve been privileged this year to visit several countries and cities where MUSH networks have taken off – Amsterdam and Manchester among them. But for sheer inspiration, look no further than the resourceful and visionary Swedes. They were pioneers in creating something truly special and their people will be the better as a result for a century to come."

Comments

[maple story mesos]

Voice over Bovine (VoB) here we come. A shame Australian Telco's, councils and industry can't takea leaf from Sweden on this.

[Ben Creevey]

Voice over Bovine (VoB) here we come. A shame Australian Telco's, councils and industry can't takea leaf from Sweden on this.