Peter Löthberg (born 1960) is a Swedish technology entrepreneur. He played a role in the growth of the Internet in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

and was the de facto architect of

EBONE EBONE (standing for European Backbone) was a pan-European Internet backbone. It went online in 1992 and was deactivated in July 2002. Some portions of the Ebone were sold to other companies and continue to operate today. History Formation In 1991 ...

(European Backbone), a pan- European

Internet backbone The Internet backbone is the principal data routes between large, strategically interconnected computer networks and core routers of the Internet. These data routes are hosted by commercial, government, academic and other high-capacity network ...

, during its lifetime. He was the designer of

Cisco Cisco Systems, Inc. (using the trademark Cisco) is an American multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, s ...

's GSR12000 backbone router technology and the TeraStream architecture, along with Guenter Honisch. He was involved with Sprint's Internet infrastructure strategy. Löthberg is the owner of

telecommunications Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

company Swedish Telecom Development and Product Innovation (STUPI).

Early life

Löthberg was born in 1960 in Karlstad, Sweden. He founded STUPI in the late 1970s before reaching the age of 20.

Career

He worked as a consultant for his town as well as the

Swedish Armed Forces The Swedish Armed Forces (, literally ''Defence Force'') are the Military, armed forces of the Kingdom of Sweden. It consists of four separate military branches, the Swedish Army, the Swedish Navy, the Swedish Air Force and the Home Guard (Swed ...

. In the 1980s, he moved to

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 ...

and began developing

laser printer Laser printing is an electrostatic digital printing process. It produces high-quality text and graphics (and moderate-quality photographs) by repeatedly passing a laser beam back and forth over a Electric charge, negatively charged cylinder call ...

technology. During this time he built a private mainframe center called the Colossal Cave Computer Center, near Mariatorget at Söder, consisting of DEC-10

minicomputers A minicomputer, or colloquially mini, is a type of general-purpose computer mostly developed from the mid-1960s, built significantly smaller and sold at a much lower price than mainframe computers . By 21st century-standards however, a mini is ...

. In 1993, Löthberg established a Swedish NTP server using STUPI AB. Löthberg submitted several patent applications to the

United States Patent and Trademark Office The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency in the United States Department of Commerce, U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark ...

. While some are pending, others were granted, such as the technology used for monitoring optical performance in an optical data transmission network. In the mid-1990s, Löthberg began working for Cisco and Sprint. Since 2010, he has worked primarily for

Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom AG (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue. It was formed in 199 ...

as a chief architect with the project TeraStream.

Personal life

He resides in Charlottesville, Virginia USA.

Works and recognition

Löthberg co-founded the Nordic University Computer Clubs Conference (NUCCC) together with Carl and Jacob Hallén. He made important contributions to the

Internet Engineering Task Force The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is a standards organization for the Internet standard, Internet and is responsible for the technical standards that make up the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP). It has no formal membership roster ...

. Löthberg also leads the TU-stiftelsen, along with Leif Johansson and Olle E Johansson. The foundation operates the Netnod Internet Exchange i Sverige, a Swedish independent Internet infrastructure organization. In 2005, Löthberg was awarded the IP prize by the Swedish Network Users' Society (SNUS). In 2007, he installed a 40-gigabit Internet connection for his mother Sigbritt Löthberg, (reported as the world's fastest private Internet connection at that time) to prove a modulation technique that can transfer data between routers separated by a distance of 2,000 kilometers. She was able to download a full high definition

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

in two seconds. With the initiative, Löthberg sought to persuade ISPs to invest in Internet infrastructure that provides faster connections at lower cost. It was deployed in collaboration with Karlstad Stadsnät. Peter Löthberg was in 2022 awarded the gold medal from

Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (, IVA), founded on 24 October 1919 by King Gustaf V, is one of the royal academies in Sweden. The academy is an independent organisation, which promotes contact and exchange between business, ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Löthberg, Peter 1960 births Living people Swedish technology company founders People from Karlstad