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by njoro 2908 days ago
I am guessing they are counting cable as fiber. The Swedish competition authority is saying 1 300 000 fiber, 670 000 cable and 960 000 dsl [0].

The things is that the telephone network itself is still essentially owned by the government and multiple companies compete to provide service. And fiber is to large extent operated under a similar model. (950 000 of the 1 300 000 are municipal broadband).

The cable monopoly, including exclusivity contracts, was instead sold to EQT (which later sold to someone else) and of course instead of opening up to competition they kept the monopoly in place.

It isn't that EQT was doing something awful (their schools with inflated grades are probably worse in that regard). Internet connectivity in Sweden is still rather good. It is just that PE firms generally do whatever makes them money, not necessarily what is good for consumers or anyone else.

[0] In Swedish, page 106: http://www.konkurrensverket.se/globalassets/publikationer/ra...

1 comments

> I am guessing they are counting cable as fiber. The Swedish competition authority is saying 1 300 000 fiber, 670 000 cable and 960 000 dsl

The numbers in the report you linked are from 2014 and 2016 and are based on statistics from PTS. PTS' most recent report [0] says that in 2017 there were 2.4 million fiber subscriptions, or 62% of all fixed broadband subscriptions, with a big increase over the last few years.

I do agree that Com Hem was a terrible thing, convincing way too many people (or apartment building associations) to sign up for very-long-term contracts. Well, they're still a terrible thing, but plenty of people have seen the light now :)

[0] http://www.statistik.pts.se/media/1315/svensk-telekommarknad... (p. 30)