Sweden’s largest broadband provider TeliaSonera (Telia) has announced on its website an agreement to acquire open fibre network provider Transit Bredband, which sells fibre capacity to homes, businesses and property owners in the municipalities of Danderyd, Taby and Vallentuna in Stockholm County, for an undisclosed price, as the latest in an ongoing campaign of takeovers and tie-ups with municipal/metropolitan fibre providers. Transit Bredband – posting 2014 revenue of SEK32 million (USD4 million) and employing eleven staff – will be part of Telia’s open fibre network unit Svenska Stadsnat (Swedish Urban Networks) but will continue to be an ‘independent local’ company. Jonas Moberg , CEO of Transit Bredband, said of the deal: ‘We get what is required in order to secure future expansion – financial resources, expertise and local involvement. Svenska Stadsnat has long experience of owning and driven open urban networks. They are skilled at local roots and will take advantage of and develop the relationships that we have built up.’
Telia is in the midst of an SEK9 billion investment programme to expand super-fast fibre broadband across Sweden, involving acquisitions as well as organic network expansion, with the aim of providing fibre connectivity to 1.9 million households (roughly 42% of all homes in Sweden) plus many businesses by 2018. In January 2015 alone the operator’s infrastructure/wholesale division Skanova has announced new fibre broadband rollouts in: Vetlanda in Jonkoping County (initially covering 1,000 households), Katrineholm in Sodermanland County (1,200 households), Kumla in Orebro County (600 households), Hoor in Skane County (900 households), Hovas and Alvsborgsbron in the Gothenburg region (2,900 households), Falkenberg in Halland County (2,500 households) and Arboga in Vastmanland County (800 households). In late-December 2014 the central Swedish municipalities of Fagersta and Norberg (in Vastmanland County) signed cooperation agreements with Telia to build open fibre infrastructure connecting homes and businesses in those areas. The open network model allows end-users to choose between several different service providers’ offerings for broadband, telephony and digital TV.