50th Skanova network provides broadband to 93 percent of Svenljunga

50th Skanova network provides broadband to 93 percent of Svenljunga The majority of the people residing in the Municipality of Svenljunga can soon surf fast on the Internet. During Wednesday, Svenljunga's municipality-wide broadband network was officially inaugurated. The new network will provide broadband access to 93 percent of the households in the municipality and will have speeds up to 8 Mbit/s for most users. Svenljunga signed an agreement with TeliaSonera Network Sales in January this year and their broadband network is the 50th to be purchased from TeliaSonera and implemented in a municipality in Sweden. Svenljunga's new broadband network will provide broadband access to most major towns and communities and almost all of the residents in the municipality. Telecom switching centres in the municipality are being upgraded to ADSL capacity, which utilizes copper cable in the existing telephone network, allowing a very high penetration, even in rural areas. Various areas of the municipality are also being connected by a fibre optic network or radio links with a high transmission capacity. The greater part of the network is already built and the remaining planned stages of the build-out are expected to be finished in three months. "Through the broadband build-out, residents and companies in rural areas will be able to utilize all the service offerings currently on the network. Companies can also purchase and sell products much more effectively and develop their business in a new way, which in turn benefits the entire municipality," says Thomas Mellqvist, commissioner for the Municipality of Svenljunga. Users are free to choose one of the 12 operators that will provide broadband services to consumers and companies through the network. Depending on their choice of broadband provider, most households and companies located within a link distance of 3.5 km from an upgraded telecom switching centre can have broadband with speeds up to 8 Mbit/s. Those located within nine kilometres from a centre can get up to 500 kbit/s. The build-out is also prepared for future connections offering much higher speeds. "Our ADSL offering allows a quick and cost-effective broadband build-out even in locations that are not commercially attractive to connect with another type of technology, enabling us to provide broadband access also in sparsely populated areas of the municipality," says Susanne Jacobsson, head of TeliaSonera Network Sales. During the past year TeliaSonera Network Sales has signed agreements to provide broadband networks to a large number of Swedish municipalities and counties, including 18 municipalities in the County of Västra Götaland in west central Sweden. For further information journalists can contact: TeliaSonera Sweden´s Press Office, +46-(0)8-713 58 30 ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net The following files are available for download: http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2004/09/01/20040901BIT00170/wkr0001.pdf