According to the latest market report from Swedish regulatory authority Post & Telestyrelsen (PTS), the shift from fixed to mobile services is continuing with undiminished strength. In 2011 revenues from mobile data services in Sweden rose by nearly 40%, and mobile data usage volume increased almost two-fold to 101,000TB. By the end of 2011 the PTS calculated that there were close to 5.2 million mobile broadband subscriptions, including 3.2 million smartphone users’ subscriptions to mobile broadband data as an add-on service, with the overall total rising by around two million in a year. This figure surpassed the number of fixed broadband lines in service, which totalled just over three million at the same date.
Looking at fixed broadband sub-segments, the PTS said that the number of direct fibre internet subscriptions climbed by 13% in 2011 while the number of xDSL connections fell by 5%; broadband over cable TV networks saw a 3% rise in user numbers, meaning that the fixed broadband market as a whole grew fractionally in the year under review. Meanwhile, the number of subscriptions for VoIP-based telephony continued growing and comprised one-third of all local fixed telephony lines in the country by the end of 2011.