FTTH Business Guide - AWT.be

2011. Under the conditions of the agreement, the network must be open to all
communications providers on equal terms.
The expansion of the network took place in three stages, and was officially
complete in 2008, although it has since been extended to additional locations.
The BAS network now consists of 2,000 km of fibre-optic cable, reaching more
than 290 locations in Skåne, and bringing broadband to a total of over one million
inhabitants in those locations.
Another part of SkåNet’s job was to co-ordinate government subsidies for
broadband. Skåne was allocated just over SEK 250 million for the BAS network
expansion, and SkåNet coordinated the municipalities’ grant applications for the
project. This was highly successful, the organisation claims. Thanks to the high
degree of coordination, the municipalities’ share of the financing is lower in Skåne
than in any other part of Sweden.
Additional funding for the network expansion came from Region Skåne’s purchase
of services in the healthcare network, and the municipalities’ purchase of
communications services – although there was no obligation for them to do so.
Last mile connections are mostly provided by telecoms operators or municipalities
using ADSL or WiMAX technologies. Of the 33 municipalities involved, 15 have
their own municipal networks, or citynets.
Roughly 30 percent of the 2000 kilometers of fibre in the BAS regional network is
owned by citynets – the remainder is owned by Tele2 – although customers
buying wholesale capacity on the BAS network do not see any difference; they pay
the same price regardless of the network owner.
With bandwidth requirements steadily increasing since the project first started in
2003, SkåNet’s attention has now turned to FTTH: would it be possible in the
future to provide everyone in Skåne with fibre to their homes? The region has set
a target of providing 100 Mbps broadband to everyone by 2020.
As a result, SkåNet is encouraging “dark fibre access” – offering specialist advice to
communities that are willing to dig to install their own fibre between their homes
and a telehouse facility on the BAS network. SkåNet provides advice on all aspects
of the process and business plan, from choice of the correct ducts and cables, to
contract templates for the creation of operation and maintenance agreements.
At the end of 2008, about 15% of the Skåne population was connected with fibre.
75 www.ftthcouncil.eu