PTS has published, on 15/04/2007, a “Proposal for Swedish Broadband Strategy”[1], with a view to define a strategy that aims to increase accessibility to an infrastructure with capacity for broadband transmission so that by 2010 all households and public and business operations are broadband connected.
This strategy focus on three areas (a) objectives and proposed measures in terms of accessibility; (b) the need of a model for equal treatment of operators; (c) open networks, with special incidence on operators’ access to local fibre networks.
The document recognizes that there “important public interests that cannot only be met through the private market and trough the promotion of competition”, such as the availability of a robust and modern IT infrastructure with high transmission capacity throughout the country, and accordingly suggests that the Government should formulate a long-term objective for access to broadband infrastructure – including a set of measures amounting up to SEK 1.135 m (of which SEK 567,5 coming from structural funds and rural development plans) - and strive for broadband to be perceived as a universal service when reviewing the USO Directive.
In fact, as since 31/12/2005 there are, in Sweden, more broadband users than dial-up internet connections, it could be claimed, according to the NRA, that “the majority of consumers” (in the sense referred to in the USO Directive) use broadband.
The Swedish NRA also supports the view that the appropriate model for equal access treatment is based on the functional separation of TeliaSonera (inspired on the BT’s OpenReach approach), including, namely, a complete separation of human resources between wholesale and retail (each side having specific and unrelated target incentives), accompanied by a “Chinese wall” in terms of information flows. In parallel, PTS announced that the conditions of TeliaSonera’s phasing out of infrastructure related with migration to NGN would be subject to future review.
In this framework, noticing that the present legal framework offers only a limited scope to mandate this functional separation, the PTS states that the Swedish government, as the main stakeholder in TeliaSonera, should strive so that the operator voluntarily carries out such separation.
Notwithstanding, PTS is demanding powers to impose openness requirements in order to ensure that broadband networks financed by public funds are open to other service providers and is recommending Municipal authorities to be given responsibility to ensure access to broadband infrastructure and the right to collect related data.
PTS is also recommending that the government takes into account the following guidance when allocating funds: (a) support should only be payable for the rollout of broadband infrastructure in areas that are lacking such access; (b) support should be technologically neutral; (c) infrastructures funded by the government should be open to all service providers.
Other important measure recommended by PTS is that the joint duct planning (currently adopted by municipalities regarding for instance telecoms, heating, road works) – which results in major cost savings – is extended to power companies.
The guidelines of PTS’s strategy seem very much in line with the Best Practice Guidelines for NGN migration that were approved in the 2007 Global Symposium for Regulators[2] and, together, with the foreseen public and private investment, will most likely produce short-term results regarding the deployment of broadband both in urban and rural areas.
The identified strategy also appeals for additional reflection in terms of the discussion regarding the inclusion or not of broadband access as a universal service in the framework of a revised US Directive (especially given the different levels of broadband penetration in the EU – see post of 30/04/2007) as well as of the design of financing model for the universal service net costs.
[1] http://www.pts.se/Archive/Documents/EN/Proposed_broadband_strategy_eng.pdf
[2]http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/treg/Events/Seminars/GSR/GSR07/consultation.html
This strategy focus on three areas (a) objectives and proposed measures in terms of accessibility; (b) the need of a model for equal treatment of operators; (c) open networks, with special incidence on operators’ access to local fibre networks.
The document recognizes that there “important public interests that cannot only be met through the private market and trough the promotion of competition”, such as the availability of a robust and modern IT infrastructure with high transmission capacity throughout the country, and accordingly suggests that the Government should formulate a long-term objective for access to broadband infrastructure – including a set of measures amounting up to SEK 1.135 m (of which SEK 567,5 coming from structural funds and rural development plans) - and strive for broadband to be perceived as a universal service when reviewing the USO Directive.
In fact, as since 31/12/2005 there are, in Sweden, more broadband users than dial-up internet connections, it could be claimed, according to the NRA, that “the majority of consumers” (in the sense referred to in the USO Directive) use broadband.
The Swedish NRA also supports the view that the appropriate model for equal access treatment is based on the functional separation of TeliaSonera (inspired on the BT’s OpenReach approach), including, namely, a complete separation of human resources between wholesale and retail (each side having specific and unrelated target incentives), accompanied by a “Chinese wall” in terms of information flows. In parallel, PTS announced that the conditions of TeliaSonera’s phasing out of infrastructure related with migration to NGN would be subject to future review.
In this framework, noticing that the present legal framework offers only a limited scope to mandate this functional separation, the PTS states that the Swedish government, as the main stakeholder in TeliaSonera, should strive so that the operator voluntarily carries out such separation.
Notwithstanding, PTS is demanding powers to impose openness requirements in order to ensure that broadband networks financed by public funds are open to other service providers and is recommending Municipal authorities to be given responsibility to ensure access to broadband infrastructure and the right to collect related data.
PTS is also recommending that the government takes into account the following guidance when allocating funds: (a) support should only be payable for the rollout of broadband infrastructure in areas that are lacking such access; (b) support should be technologically neutral; (c) infrastructures funded by the government should be open to all service providers.
Other important measure recommended by PTS is that the joint duct planning (currently adopted by municipalities regarding for instance telecoms, heating, road works) – which results in major cost savings – is extended to power companies.
The guidelines of PTS’s strategy seem very much in line with the Best Practice Guidelines for NGN migration that were approved in the 2007 Global Symposium for Regulators[2] and, together, with the foreseen public and private investment, will most likely produce short-term results regarding the deployment of broadband both in urban and rural areas.
The identified strategy also appeals for additional reflection in terms of the discussion regarding the inclusion or not of broadband access as a universal service in the framework of a revised US Directive (especially given the different levels of broadband penetration in the EU – see post of 30/04/2007) as well as of the design of financing model for the universal service net costs.
[1] http://www.pts.se/Archive/Documents/EN/Proposed_broadband_strategy_eng.pdf
[2]http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/treg/Events/Seminars/GSR/GSR07/consultation.html
