Skanova broadband will be early Christmas present for residents of Municipality of Vaggeryd

Skanova broadband will be early Christmas present for residents of Municipality of Vaggeryd The residents of the Municipality of Vaggeryd will have access to broadband service just in time for Christmas this year. Vaggeryd has signed an agreement with TeliaSonera for the build-out of a municipality-wide network that will provide broadband with speeds up to 8 Mbit/s for 86 percent of the households in the municipality. Telecom switching centres in the communities of Bondstorp, Byarum Kyrkby, Hok and Svenarum will now be upgraded for ADSL, which utilises copper cable in the existing telephone network and allows a very high broadband penetration, even in rural areas. Switching centres in Vaggeryd and Skillingaryd are already upgraded, while centres in Åker and Tofteryd will be connected in the beginning of next year. A network will also be built in the municipality to link towns and communities with fibre optic cable or radio links with a very high transmission capacity. Households in the municipality that have access to the broadband network are free to choose one of the 12 operators that will provide broadband services to consumers and companies through the network. The network is expected to be ready for service for the majority of the households on December 14, ten days before Christmas Eve. "I am very pleased about the agreement, which is a significant step towards creating the right conditions for rural areas to participate in the development of the municipality. Infrastructure issues are important. With this agreement, we are giving many businesses and consumers good terms and conditions for participating in a future initiative for broadband services and Internet connectivity," says Börje Gustafsson, chairman of the municipal executive board of the Municipality of Vaggeryd. Depending on their choice of broadband provider, all 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 with 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. "ADSL technology enables a fast and cost-effective broadband build-out with a very high penetration rate, even in rural areas. This is an excellent solution for a municipality like Vaggeryd, which consists of both densely populated areas and rural communities," says Susanne Jacobsson, head of TeliaSonera Network Sales. During the past year TeliaSonera has signed agreements to provide broadband networks to more than 75 municipalities and most counties in Sweden. For further information journalists can contact: TeliaSonera's Press Office, phone +46 8 713 58 30 TeliaSonera is the leading telecommunications company in the Nordic and Baltic regions. At the end of December 2003 TeliaSonera had 11,957,000 mobile customers (37,610,000 incl associated companies) and 8,061,000 fixed customers (9,160,000 incl associated companies) and 1,631,000 internet customers (1,691,000 incl associated companies). Outside the home markets TeliaSonera has extensive interests in the growth markets in Russia, Turkey and Eurasia. TeliaSonera is listed on the Stockholm Exchange and the Helsinki Exchanges. Pro forma net sales January-December 2003 amounted to SEK 81.7 billion (EUR 9.01 billion). The number of employees was 26,694 ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net The following files are available for download: http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2004/10/04/20041004BIT20690/wkr0007.pdf