Swedish Regulator do not think regulation of dark fiber is needed

Updated: This is discussed further in in a new article in Computer Sweden where a provider was not allowed to buy dark fiber from Skanova Access, when the owner of Skanova Access, TeliaSonera, was able to do it.

In an article in Computer Sweden it is written for the first time that Swedish Regulator PTS has the view that the problem with dark fiber lies in Cities policies regarding deployment of dark fiber. The regulator say that the problems with access to dark fiber is resolved by more efficient competition.

I think the Swedish Regulator of course talk nice words. Words that are nice from a theoretical standpoint regarding market economy. But they fail to think about the market regarding IT (as a whole) and what is best for Sweden. Sweden is a very sparsely populated country, and we all living in Sweden have to share the total investment of all fiber that is deployed. The more fiber, the higher the cost. Because of this, the best is of course (specifically regarding good coverage all over Sweden) if we all share one fiber network that we all share. That way the owner of the fiber can have a long down payment time, and that will lower the costs for people buying the product. But of course we do have already today more than one owner of fiber networks, but within each geographical area we might have one dominant player. If that player sell dark fiber, then we see growth regarding IT. That has been the case all over the world. Best growth of IT is in areas where there is a de-facto monopoly that sell dark fiber.

The theory PTS has is of course that if that dominant player is not selling dark fiber, then a 2nd player should (and will) do a parallell investment and dig down fiber as well. And that 2nd player might behave better. Sure, maybe, BUT, what is worse is that we now have doubled the investment in fiber, and double the amount of money to pay back for the investments. Most certainly over a shorter period of time.

No, dear regulator. You have just been looking at the theoretical game called market economy. You have not looked carefully enough on the IT market, and what is happening in the world. I sure hope our politicians say and do something, fast!