TeliaSonera to make major investment in faster broadband for Sweden

TeliaSonera Sweden is now launching one of the largest infrastructure projects in the company’s history. Over a period of five years, the fixed broadband network will be upgraded to meet today’s and tomorrow’s demands for speed and capacity. The initiative will involve between 1.5 to 2 million households and enterprises all over Sweden.

The needs and expectations of customers are crystal-clear: both private customers and enterprise customers want to be able to use their broadband connections for increasingly advanced applications. Higher speeds and greater capacity in the broadband network are a requirement for this.

“We want to ensure high quality and a high level of service in our network and also secure future revenues. We are on our way to entering a new world. We must dare make investments and we have to start now,” says Erik Hallberg, Head of Broadband Services at TeliaSonera Sweden.

Faster broadband on the wish-list
Telia’s recently conducted Trend Report for 2008 indicated that one out of four companies in Sweden are planning on investing in faster broadband during 2008. This is also something that employees like at enterprises in the country: more than one of four in the survey responded that “faster broadband” was what they were most satisfied with at their workplace. Household requirements for faster broadband are also growing as services such as multiple TV boxes, HDTV, movie downloads and online gaming, and security services like Telia Hemkoll (home security), become more and more common.

100 Mbit/second and higher
Different technologies will be used to upgrade the network, depending on the geographic circumstances and the market’s needs. Fibre-based connections of up to 100 Mbit/sec or higher is one alternative. Another is VDSL2 with speeds between 30 Mbit/sec and 70 Mbit/sec over the copper network. The network will be upgraded selectively and based mainly on the customer structure. In some cases, Telia might collaborate with external parties, such as municipalities, building owners and housing co-operatives.

“Today’s technology allows us to upgrade small units – for example, densely populated residential areas in smaller towns and communities – and not just the major metropolitan centres,” says Erik Hallberg.

In addition to upgrading the network, the broadband initiative will also involve the development of new products and services.