This article covers telecommunications in
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
.
Telecommunications
Sweden
liberalized its
telecommunications
Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...
industry starting in 1980s and being formally liberalized in 1993.
[Swedish Economic Policy Review 9 (2002) 133-161. ''Telecommunications liberlaisation in Sweden: Is "intermediate regulation viable?''. Lars Hultkrantz. 2002. Available online i]
pdf format
. Retrieved 22 February 2007. This was three years ahead of USA and five years before the European common policy introduced in January 1998 allowed for an open and competitive telecommunication market.
The Swedes, most of who are computer literate, enjoy a continuous growth in the Internet market and the availability of technologies such as Metro Ethernet, fiber, satellite, WAN access technologies and even the availability of 3G services. Statistically, 6.447 (2004) million telephone main lines are in use, 8.0436 (2005) million mobile cellular telephones are in use and 6.7 million Swedes are regular internet users.
This abundance of telecommunication technology is a result of promoting a competitive industry that was made possible by deregulation. Since Sweden was the first to take on this arduous task the government had to come up with "a regulatory framework of its own".
The processes that went about resulting in the liberalization of the telecommunications' industry can be structured into three phases: "Phase 1 of monopoly to Phase 2 with a mix of monopoly and competition to a "mature" Phase 3 with extensive competition".
;Phase 1
# Started in 1980 with a parliamentary decision to open the market for terminals attached to the public network. Previously
Televerket, a dominant telephone company in Sweden had sole right to attach equipment to the public network.
# Televerket creates a subsidiary called the Swedish Telecom International in 1989 to compete for international customers.
# Telia asks the government to become a limited liability company in 1990 and the government transforms Televerket into a public company by selling some shares. In fact, in 1987 the Director General of Televerket in his speech stated that he wanted the liberalization process to be completed.
# This initiative brings about the Telecommunication act effective on 1 July 1993 which was the first significant liberalization effect. The most important reason behind it was, "paradoxically, the efficiency of the national operator".
The operator being Televerket. "In 1993 the new company Telia AB was formed and a new Telecommunications Act was launched".
# At this point the government has an indirect control over the company, wants to promote market competition, and does not want to hinder the support "for Televerket’s growth strategies".
# Televerket moves from just being a national operator to also being the national regulation body till 1992. Basically having a monopoly control by the blessing of the state.
;Phase 2
# The emphasis is on the local loop also known as the "last mile". The aim is to introduce competition gradually but maintain some monopoly to deter entry into the market.
# Telia AB was not required to undergo a horizontal split. "It was and is the largest provider of both cable TV and mobile telecommunication".
# Several instances prevail to break up the company but that state does not approve. It continued to keep the company as a parastatal, and the incumbent continued to maintain a monopoly in the market.
# The main area of concern during Phase 2 is the issue of interconnection. Before the Telecommunications Act of 1993, the parastatal, could dictate its own terms, but after 1993, Telia was told to negotiate with companies seeking interconnection.
;Phase 3
During the period of 1993-2000 there is rise in competition with legislation of the regulatory body being changed several times. In the case of the
POTS, Telia in 2000 still held monopoly in the fixed-line access market.
Whereas,
mobile phone
A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...
and
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
penetration in the household market ended up being one of the highest in the world with more than 50 percent of the revenue coming from these two industries. There were three major organizations providing
GSM
The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such ...
services and 120 internet service providers.
One of the major causes that lead competitions thrive in areas that did not have a history of monopoly was the light handed approach taken towards the interconnection issue by the regulatory body initially.
Telia held very high interconnection charges, making it very difficult for new entrants to enter. But what it did do was push the new entrants to enter other markets. Tele2 did just that by taking out a massive marketing campaign to attract a huge number of customers to its internet access service. This campaign was successful enough to bring back Telia to the negotiation table over the interconnection issue .
This process eventually lead to the abolition of the light handed regulatory approach towards interconnection and put more power in the hands of the regulatory body. The intensity of regulation kept increasing around 1999 in areas other than POTS, especially the mobile market.
Telephones
*main lines in use: 5.014 million (2009)
*mobile cellular: 10.65 million (2009)
*general assessment: highly developed telecommunications infrastructure; ranked among leading countries for fixed-line, mobile-cellular, Internet and broadband penetration
*domestic: coaxial and multiconductor cable carry most voice traffic; parallel microwave radio relay network carries some additional telephone channels
*international: 5 submarine coaxial cables; satellite earth stations - 1
Intelsat
Intelsat S.A. (formerly INTEL-SAT, INTELSAT, Intelsat) is a multinational satellite services provider with corporate headquarters in Luxembourg and administrative headquarters in Tysons Corner, Virginia, United States. Originally formed as In ...
(
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
), 1
Eutelsat
Eutelsat S.A. is a French satellite operator. Providing coverage over the entire European continent, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas, it is the world's third-largest satellite operator in terms of revenues.
Eutelsat's satellit ...
, and 1
Inmarsat (Atlantic and
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...
regions); note -
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
shares the Inmarsat earth station with the other
Nordic countries
The Nordic countries (also known as the Nordics or ''Norden''; literal translation, lit. 'the North') are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe and the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It includes the sovereign states of Denmar ...
(
Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark
...
,
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
,
Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...
, and
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
)
Radio
*broadcast stations:
AM 1,
FM 124,
shortwave
Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave (SW) radio frequencies. There is no official definition of the band, but the range always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (100 to 10 me ...
0 (2008)
*radio sets: 8.25 million (1997)
*broadcast media: Broadcast media: publicly owned TV broadcaster operates 2 terrestrial networks plus regional stations; multiple privately owned TV broadcasters operating nationally, regionally, and locally; about 50 local TV stations; widespread access to pan-Nordic and international broadcasters through multi-channel cable and satellite TV; publicly owned radio broadcaster operates 3 national stations and a network of 25 regional channels; roughly 100 privately owned local radio stations with some consolidating into near national networks; an estimated 900 community and neighborhood radio stations broadcast intermittently (2008)
Television
*broadcast stations: 252 (2008)
*television sets: 4.6 million (1997)
Internet
*
Top-level domain
A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet after the root domain. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in ...
:
.se
.se, formerly branded as .SE, is the Internet country code top-level domain ( ccTLD) for Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is ...
*
Internet service providers
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise privatel ...
(ISPs): 29 (2000).
*
Internet hosts
A network host is a computer or other device connected to a computer network. A host may work as a Server (computing), server offering information resources, services, and applications to users or other hosts on the network. Hosts are assigned at ...
:
** 6.0 million hosts, 19th in the world (2012);
** 5.6 million hosts (2010).
*
Internet users
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
: 6.8 million users, 49th in the world; 94% of the population, 19th in the world (2012).
[Calculated using penetration rate and population data fro]
"Countries and Areas Ranked by Population: 2012"
, Population data, International Programs, U.S. Census Bureau, retrieved 26 June 2013["Percentage of Individuals using the Internet 2000-2012"]
International Telecommunication Union (Geneva), June 2013, retrieved 22 June 2013
Signals intelligence
In 2009, the
Riksdag
The Riksdag (, ; also sv, riksdagen or ''Sveriges riksdag'' ) is the legislature and the supreme decision-making body of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral legislature with 349 members (), elected proportionally and se ...
passed
new legislation regulating the
National Defence Radio Establishment
The National Defence Radio Establishment ( sv, Försvarets radioanstalt, FRA) is a Swedish
government agency organised under the Ministry of Defence. The two main tasks of FRA are signals intelligence (SIGINT), and support to government authorit ...
(FRA), enabling them to collect information from both wireless and cable bound signals passing the Swedish border. Since most communications in Sweden pass through its borders at one point or another, this monitoring in practice affects most traffic within Sweden as well.
See also
*
Culture of Sweden
The Culture of Sweden has long been known for the accomplishments of a wide variety of artists.
Prehistoric Sweden was the source of Norse culture, dominant in all of Scandinavia for hundreds of years, and the Temple at Uppsala in Sweden was ...
*
List of Swedish newspapers
The number of newspapers in Sweden was 235 in 1919. It decreased to 125 papers in the mid-1960s. In 2009 the number of the newspapers in the country was 90.
This is a list of Swedish-language newspapers with their respective cities of publicatio ...
*
List of Swedish television channels
This is a list of television channels that broadcast for a Swedish language audience.
''Channels holding a broadcasting license for the terrestrial network are marked "''(DTT)''."''
Public non-commercial networks
SVT
*SVT1 (News) (DTT)
*SVT2 ( ...
*
List of Swedish companies
Sweden is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the third-largest country in the European Union by area. It is also a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation f ...
*
List of Swedes
This is a list of lists of notable Swedes.
__NOTOC__
By country or ethnicity
* List of Sami people
* List of Lebanese people in Sweden
*List of Swedish Americans
* List of Swedish Jews
By university
* List of Lund University people
* List of ...
*
National Defence Radio Establishment
The National Defence Radio Establishment ( sv, Försvarets radioanstalt, FRA) is a Swedish
government agency organised under the Ministry of Defence. The two main tasks of FRA are signals intelligence (SIGINT), and support to government authorit ...
*
Telia Sonera
*
Sveriges Television
Sveriges Television AB ("Sweden's Television Stock Company"), shortened to SVT (), is the Sweden, Swedish national public broadcasting, public television broadcaster, funded by a public service tax on personal income set by the Riksdag (national ...
*
Government agencies in Sweden
The government agencies in Sweden are state-controlled organizations that act independently to carry out the policies of the Government of Sweden. The ministries are relatively small and merely policy-making organizations, allowed to monitor the ...
References
;Notes
;Bibliography
*
CIA World Factbook
''The World Factbook'', also known as the ''CIA World Factbook'', is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official print version is available ...
2010
External links
Telecoms Sweden
{{DEFAULTSORT:Telecommunications in Sweden