100 Mbit? What's it to me as a local councillor?

What does broadband mean for a municipality? Should the municipality own a city network? How should the local council think? How do Scandinavian municipalities differ when it comes to offering e-services and facilitating the construction of the necessary IT infrastructure?

Presentation

Marco Forzati, senior scientist and project manager at Acreo Swedish ICT, opened the seminar. Together with Crister Mattson, he has produced a study, commissioned by Stokab, on how broadband affects municipalities, including by looking at socio-economic effects.

The study shows that this leads, among other things, to increased entrepreneurship and higher employment - and despite the initial investments, urban networks often perform well economically.

- "When you add up all the effects, and we have taken those that can be quantified and measured today, you see that after just three to four years you have a payback. The profits start to grow after just a few years," says Marco Forzati.

What is the situation among municipalities?

Telenor is behind a study that has examined the extent to which some of the largest Scandinavian municipalities offer various e-services: The Nordic Broadband City Index 2012.

During the seminar, Mats Lundquist, Head of Business Area Broadband and TV, presented the results. In general, Sweden is doing well when it comes to broadband penetration and mobile services, the Nordic countries are equally good at fixed infrastructure and Denmark stands out when it comes to digital services.

- "Most municipalities are good at getting things going that benefit their residents, but when it comes to infrastructure, the level is still low," he says.

Stadsnäten i Sverige
Mikael Ek, CEO of the Swedish Urban Network Association, then gave his view. He noted that there is a wide variation in both profitability and how the business is run.
Today there are around 200 city networks and they help to create both local service providers and local anchoring - in addition, they often provide lower prices to the end customer.

- Either you choose to do it in-house or by contracting with an external party. The most important thing is that you do not do it on unclear grounds and sell your network to cover other costs in the municipality.

The role of the municipality

A debate followed in which most agreed that municipalities have an important role in fiber deployment, but when it comes to who should own and operate the networks, opinions differed.

- "I think it's quite simple, I come from a region where I see that it is only the municipality that can run this with city networks because they take responsibility for the entire region," says Eva-Marie Marklund, CEO of AC-Net.

Karin Ahl, sales and marketing manager at Rala Infratech and chair of the FTTH Council Europe, says the issue is more complicated.
- "I don't think there is a simple and short answer. We see a great variety of skills and understanding of what it means and entails. I think we need to focus much more on working strategically with municipalities.

How should councillors think?

Ove Alm, CEO of Skanova, says that the first step is to get involved. The second is to see the municipalities as an important player in creating the right conditions.
- It is only in step three that you can discuss who is best suited to do this fiber expansion, he says.

Jörgen Sandström, IT strategist at the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions, points out that municipalities are well placed to run the networks and that regional coordination is important.
- "I also think it's important to focus on why a municipal council should get involved. It is very much about the fact that private individuals, companies and the public sector have great needs for electronic communications.

Participants:
Marco Forzati, Senior Scientist and Project Manager, Acreo Swedish ICT
Mikael Ek, CEO, Svenska Stadsnätsföreningen
Jörgen Sandström, IT Strategist, SKL
Mats Lundquist, Business Area Manager Broadband and TV, Telenor Sweden
Ove Alm, CEO, Skanova
Mikael von Otter, Industry Policy Expert, IT&Telekomföretagen
Eva-Marie Marklund, CEO, AC-Net
Karin Ahl, Sales and Marketing Manager, RALA, Infratech and Chair. FTTH Council Europe

The seminar was organized by IT&Telekomföretagen in cooperation with Telenor. Magnus Höij was the moderator.

Text and photo: Sara Wilk