TeliaSonera Sweden to widen broadband access

TeliaSonera Sweden to widen broadband access TeliaSonera Sweden has begun upgrading 250 exchanges all over the country to broadband. This will enable another 400,000 Swedes to connect at speeds up to 8000 kpbs (8 Mbps). No other operator in Europe today is offering better broadband coverage at such high connection speeds. The upgrade, expected to be completed by the end of June 2004, will mean that around 85 percent of households and businesses in Sweden have access to ADSL broadband connectivity. "The demand for broadband is growing, particularly at the higher speeds," says Marie Ehrling, CEO of TeliaSonera Sweden. "We are continuing with our deliberate focus on ADSL in order to provide easy high-speed Internet access for the great majority of the population." Concurrent with this upgrade, Telia is increasing the distance limit for the 2000 kbps service from 3.5 kilometres to 5.5 kilometres. This is the maximum technically allowable distance (the length of cable) between the customer's premises and the exchange. Sales to private and business customers will begin as and when exchanges are upgraded. The last exchange in this upgrade phase is expected to be switched to broadband around the Midsummer holiday 2004. Further information to journalists is available from TeliaSonera Sweden Press Service, ph. +46 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/2004/05/06/20040506BIT00680/wkr0001.doc http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2004/05/06/20040506BIT00680/wkr0002.pdf