Copper network in Sweden no longer supported?

I am sorry every time I see I clearly can say what did I say but this is clearly one such point in time. In an article at IDG Sweden it is described that Telia have interest in stopping supporting copper wires to 200k households. This is quite a large number if one think of how few households there are in Sweden (about 4.5 million according to Statistics Sweden).

People are surprised, and now people start screaming about how problematic it would be. What a waste of government money, as a large portion of the subsidy for broadband that was given out 2001-2006 was bound to DSL solutions. Etc. People talk about the responsibility the government has and discuss who should pay for the copper in the future.

Surprised? I am not. I have already since I really started to involve myself in the IT Policy in Sweden (about 12-15 years ago) tried to tell the government they can not “just” give out money to stupid solutions. The only solutions money should be given to are future proof investments, where the investments do have a use during the lifetime of the money. And, that government money should never be used for the investment, but for down payments, rent etc for things that are in use. Today, someone could have got money to make an investment, and then close it down two years later. The money (for the investment) is already received.

No, the money should have been used for investments in fiber infrastructure (that would have helped also build out of wireless networks, such as 3G, 4G etc), and more importantly to help households invest in a new local loop. Today the production cost is on the countryside about 100SEK/meter, which is costly.

But, the government all the time have said they do not want technology specific regulation and subsidy. Sure, that is a fine goal, but in the old subsidy that was made, the County Administrative Board was approving broadband plans put forward by the Cities. They had the ability to say no to non-future-proof solutions. But they did not. I am nervous they actually did not say no to anything.

Given the situation we have today, with lots and lots of lost investments in the copper wire solutions (or at least, an investment that helped people now, but not for as long time as people thought – forever), the government have absolutely no other choice than ensuring that investments in true future proof technologies is accelerated. That passive infrastructure is shared as much as possible. That the Internet connections are open so the end user get an effective choice. A large part of this is described in the investigation Bredband till hela landet - SOU 2008:40 that the government is working on at the moment. Yes, it will cost a lot, but I do not see the Government having much choice. Specifically if they have an interest, which they have, to smooth out the difference between rural and non-rural areas of Sweden.