Com Hem was a Swedish brand owned by
Tele2 AB which supplied
Triple Play services that included
cable television
Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...
,
broadband internet and
fixed-line telephone
A telephone, colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that enables two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most ...
.
Founded in 1983 as Televerket Kabel-TV as part of the former state-owned
Televerket, the company was successively named Svenska Kabel-TV AB and Telia InfoMedia TeleVision AB, before becoming 'Com Hem' (a play on the Swedish phrase ''Kom hem'', "come home") in 1999. In 2003, Telia had to sell Com Hem to
EQT AB to satisfy
EU competition requirements as a result of its merger with
Sonera of Finland that same year.
In 2021 the company had 135+ TV channels available.
Digital TV was introduced in 1997. A broadband service that used the company's proprietary
cable network was launched in 1999. In 2004
VoIP
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables voice calls to be transmitted as ...
telephone was introduced, and the company became Sweden's first nationwide
triple play service provider.
All households connected to the Com Hem Cable Network had access to broadband Internet services, services, fixed-line telephony and a wide range of TV channels. Com Hem also provided interactive services that facilitated management, communication and maintenance for property owners.
The company had around 1000 employees, with offices in
Stockholm
Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
,
Gothenburg
Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...
,
Malmö
Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...
,
Västerås
Västerås () is a city in central Sweden on the shore of Mälaren, Lake Mälaren in the province of Västmanland, west of Stockholm. The city had a population of 127,799 at the end of 2019, out of the municipal total of 158,653, over 100,000 mo ...
,
Härnösand
Härnösand () is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and the seat of Härnösand Municipality in Västernorrland County, Sweden with 25,012 inhabitants in 2023. It is called "the gate to the High Coast" because of the world heritage landscape just ...
,
Sundsvall
Sundsvall () is a city and the seat of Sundsvall Municipality in Västernorrland County, Sweden. It has a population of 58,807 as of 2020; more than 95,000 live in the municipal area. It is Sweden's 21st largest city by population. Old town i ...
and
Örnsköldsvik
Örnsköldsvik (; ), often shortened to just Ö-vik, is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and the seat of Örnsköldsvik Municipality in Västernorrland County, Sweden, with 32,953 inhabitants in 2017.
Its natural harbour and archipelago is in th ...
.
In 2011, EQT sold the company to
BC Partners. Com Hem held its initial public offering (
IPO) on 17 June 2014 and became listed on
Stockholm Stock Exchange
Nasdaq Stockholm, formerly known as the Stockholm Stock Exchange (), is a stock exchange located in Frihamnen, Stockholm, Sweden. Founded in 1863, it has become the primary securities exchange of the Nordic countries. As of March 2021, a total ...
. On 27 April 2017
Kinnevik acquired approximately 18.5% of the stock and became Com Hem's largest stock holder. Com Hem also operated mobile services as an
MVNO using its own brand and since early-2020, also with an online-only brand called Penny (managed by Tele2 since 2021) whose operations are modelled after
Google Fi Wireless, and is also a broadband
flanker brand using Com Hem/Tele2's fixed-line infrastructure. Com Hem's mobile services utilised the Tele2 (
SUNAB and
Net4Mobility) infrastructure in
2G GSM
The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a family of standards to describe the protocols for second-generation (2G) digital cellular networks, as used by mobile devices such as mobile phones and Mobile broadband modem, mobile broadba ...
,
3G UMTS
The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a 3G mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. UMTS uses Wideband Code Division Multiple Access, wideband code-division multiple access (W-CDMA) radio access technolog ...
and
4G LTE.
Com Hem had been ranked as the TV brand with the least satisfied customers in Sweden in 2007, 2008 and 2009 according to Svenskt Kvalitetsindex, an independent customer survey company. It has since almost reached the top of the ranking with the most satisfied customers, according to the same source.
Analogue channels were withdrawn from the cable television network on 8 September 2020.
On 27 April 2021, the owner Tele2 discontinued the use of the Com Hem brand, while continuing to provide the same services under its own brand.
Analogue channels - Withdrawn
*
NFL Network
*
Animal Planet
*
Travel + Escape (TV channel)
*
The Learning Channel
TLC is an American multinational cable television, cable and satellite television, satellite television network owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks, Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. First established in 1980 as The Learn ...
*
W Network
*
History Channel
History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television television broadcaster, network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney General Entertainme ...
*
Hunan Television
*
SVT1
*
SVT2
*
TV3
*
TV4
*
Kanal 5
*
TV6
*
TV7
*
TV8
*
Kanal 9
*
TV10
*
Kanal 11
*
TV12
*
MTV
*
TV4 Sport
*
SVT24
*
SVTB
*
Love Nature
*
CNN International
*
Golf Channel
*
Makeful
*
CNBC
CNBC is an American List of business news channels, business news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts live business news and analysis programming during the morning, Day ...
*
WWE Network
*
Fashion TV
*
SET International
*
DW-TV
*
CTi International
*
SAB TV
Sony SAB is an Indian Hindi-language general entertainment pay television
Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to Subscription busi ...
*
Kunskapskanalen
The analogue package could also include a few local channels, usually an open access channel such as
public access channels known as
Öppna Kanalen ( sv). In areas near Denmark, Norway or Finland, Com Hem usually included channels from the neighboring countries such as
TV Finland,
YLE TV1,
DR1,
TV2 Denmark and
NRK1.
Digital channels
See also
*
List of Swedish television channels
References
External links
Official ''Com Hem'' websiteOfficial ''Com Hem Group'' website(in English)
{{CATV Europe
Telecommunications companies established in 1983
Cable television companies of Sweden
Internet service providers of Sweden
VoIP services
VoIP companies of Sweden
Private equity portfolio companies
The Carlyle Group companies
Providence Equity Partners companies
Telecommunications companies of Sweden
Companies based in Stockholm
Companies formerly listed on Nasdaq Stockholm
Swedish companies established in 1983