Sweden’s communications regulator, the Post and Telecom Agency (Post & Telestyrelsen, PTS), says that the COVID-19 pandemic led to a surge in broadband and mobile voice usage in 2020. In its report for the year, PTS says that data traffic on mobile networks increased 36% year-on-year, surpassing the 26% growth registered in 2019. Mobile call minutes were up 11%, which is the strongest growth in the past few years, spurred by an increase in home working and home schooling.
The number of high speed fibre-based internet subscriptions was up 9% in 2020, with at least eight out of ten homes now having a connection offering speeds of 100Mbps or greater. DSL connections using the traditional copper network decreased to only 360,000, which means that the number has more than halved in three years. The number of subscriptions for fixed telephony decreased by 15% but, for the first time in many years, business fixed telephony call minutes increased, which was also a pandemic effect.
In 2020, revenues for services in telephony, broadband and data communication were SEK49.9 billion (USD6 billion), which was 1% lower than the previous year. Reduced turnover from fixed telephony, mobile telephony and mobile broadband were partly offset by increased revenues in fixed broadband.