Fog curtains on the broadband issue

Last week, PTS presented its annual broadband survey, which found that in 2017, 77% of all households and businesses in Sweden had access to 100 Mbit/s. This is an increase of 5.6 percentage points from the same time the year before.

There is no doubt that broadband is being built around the country. It is gratifying that more households and businesses have gained better and faster connections since last year. What is very unfortunate, however, is that PTS's statement in connection with the report gives the impression that the expansion is going like clockwork and that the government's broadband target is within reach. This is not a view that the industry shares.

What we see is that it is the most challenging part of the expansion that remains: rural and sparsely populated areas, where market forces do not reach as naturally. We also see that the Swedish Transport Administration's long processing times and person-dependent and non-transparent processing processes still constitute the biggest obstacle to the continued expansion, and we are still concerned about the Swedish Transport Administration's announcement that the smaller roads cannot withstand fiber laying. Unless PTS has solutions to these challenges, we are critical of the authority sending the signal that "overall it looks positive" to the public and responsible politicians. This is to embellish and to build false hopes.