Investigation "Broadband 2013" in Sweden ready

The investigation that was launched 2007 by the IT Minister was today handed over to the minister. You can find the investigation here. There is a summary in English on pages 17 to 21. There are a few things noticeable:

Broadband should be able to maintain a minimum transmission speed of 2 Mbit/s symmetric and be upgradable to higher speeds as needs develop. I propose government funding for measures during the period 2009–2013. This funding should be used to build access points for neglected areas outside of urban areas and small towns. This in turn will allow different types of access networks and operators. An access point that is built using this funding will, in turn, make it possible to provide a majority of those living or working in the neglected area with a connection of at least 2 Mbit/s in both directions, i.e. symmetric. An expansion of this kind will cost at least SEK 7 300 million. The percentage of government funding should be limited to 50 per cent. The rest of the financing should come from operators, municipalities, EU Structural Funds and regional policy funds from expenditure area 19. I propose that municipal co-financing amount to 10 per cent. To encourage voluntary work, municipalities should be able to deduct the value from the municipal co-financing. The National Post and Telecom Agency should be instructed to make an annual survey of the conditions for broadband and to report the results of and forecasts for broadband funding. I also propose that the instructions to the National Post and Telecom Agency and county administrative boards (or equivalent body) be changed so that IT infrastructure becomes a permanent task.

Now I will dive down into the report and see what they really have written. Specifically how they present what kind of actions will be acceptable for getting a grant. The local access points are fine, close to the households. But, did they write about this without referencing the work of the IT Commission that wrote about it already around year 2000? Have they written that fiber is the only viable alternative for such shared infrastructure to this connection point? We’ll see, and this is not the last post from me on this issue.