Skanova broadband for entire Municipality of Skövde

The build-out of a new municipality-wide broadband network for Skövde is now finished. Today, the network is being officially inaugurated by representatives from the municipality and the network provider, TeliaSonera Network Sales. The new broadband network will provide service in virtually all areas of the municipality and give households and companies broadband speeds up to 24 Mbit/s.

TeliaSonera’s broadband solution, Skanova IP-City, was contracted by the Municipality of Skövde one year ago. The build-out of the broadband network is now finished and it is being officially inaugurated during Thursday at Gothia Science Park. “I’m very pleased that we have finally got a broadband network that will provide service throughout our municipality. The build-out will mean so much for both private persons and enterprises and it is an important piece of the puzzle for strengthening our municipality’s competitiveness as an area for people to live in, and for companies to set up business here,” says Tord Gustavsson, chairman of the executive board of the Municipality of Skövde. Eighteen telecom switching centres in the municipality have been upgraded with ADSL technology, which utilises the existing telephone network and allows a very high broadband penetration rate, even in sparsely populated areas. The Municipality of Skövde has chosen an open network solution in which households and companies in the municipality are free to choose among the broadband providers that have an agreement with Skanova. Households can order broadband connections with speeds ranging from 250 kbit/s to 24 Mbit/s, depending on the provider and their distance to a switching centre. Telecom switching centres in towns and communities in the municipality have also been interconnected in a network using fibre optic cable and radio links providing very high transmission speeds. Companies and private persons with stringent requirements for broadband capacity can connect to this network, which is also prepared for much higher transmission speeds. For the local business community and University of Skövde, which have invested heavily in e-logistics solutions over the past few years, the municipality-wide broadband network will open up new doors. “Now we can create e-services that can speed up the development of commercial and industrial businesses, and administrative services in the municipality. Broadband sharpens our competitive edge and has a huge potential for developing local and regional operations. To be used effectively, new technology requires new knowledge, which makes education and research crucial for achieving growth,” says Dag Ericsson, professor of e-logistics. During the past few years TeliaSonera Network Sales has signed agreements for building out broadband networks with around 80 municipalities in Sweden, of which approximately 20 in Västra Götaland County.