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Panel Broadband Seminar

Agreement in Almedalen on the digitalization of Sweden

Almedalen Broadband Digitization Innovation

In a crowded Almega tent at Visby beach yesterday, the broadband expansion in Sweden and what is required to fiber the whole of Sweden was discussed.

EY began by presenting the report Future fiber investments in Sweden, which they have produced on behalf of, among others, IT&Telecom companies, and then an engaged panel consisting of Göran Marby, DG PTS, Ove Alm, CEO Skanova, Mikael Philipsson, CEO IP Only, Eva-Marie Marklund, CEO AC-net and MPs Eliza Roszkowska Öberg (M) and Anders Ygeman (S) highlighted what they believe is crucial for the broadband expansion to be implemented in the best way.

Despite its size and topographical challenges, Sweden has come a long way in expanding its high-speed broadband infrastructure. But to reach the government's target of 100Mbit/s to 90% of the country's households and businesses by 2020, efforts are needed on several fronts.

The panel particularly emphasized that:

  • Municipalities have a key role to play in broadband deployment: they must provide the conditions for private operators to deploy.
  • Service innovation is needed to drive deployment
  • Constructive collaboration between all stakeholders is a prerequisite, which shows that the Broadband Forum has an important role to play in the future.
  • More politicians need to get seriously involved in the broadband issue, both at parliamentary and municipal level.

In his final comments, Anders Ygeman (S) said that since we are building an essential infrastructure, the state should support municipalities and county councils to make it work.

This year, there have been more seminars on broadband issues than ever before in Almedalen. I take this as a sign that the understanding of how important this infrastructure development is for our society is now beginning to emerge on a broad front. It is also gratifying to hear that all the actors involved also seem to understand that collaboration is a prerequisite for the digitalization of society. Let us now ensure that all the good forces join forces - even after Almedalen Week is over!

(Pictured from left: Anders Ygeman (S), Eliza Roszkowska Öberg (M), Göran Marby PTS, Eva-Marie Marklund AC-Net, Ove Alm Skanova, Mikael Philipsson IP-Only)