Sweden to get 100Mbps broadband by 2020
Digital Britain may be celebrating the push for every home to have 2Mbps broadband by 2012 but the Swedish government has promised much more to its citizens.
![Broadband](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/VhfiQ5PJQ4jk9LqPatK29L-320-80.jpg)
The Swedish government has ramped up its plans to provide high-speed internet to its citizens.
sa Torstensson, the Swedish Minister for Communications, has announced a roll out 100Mbps broadband to 90 per cent of its population by 2020, with 40 per cent having it by 2015.
A strategy statement posted on the Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Communications website said: "It is important that Swedish businesses and households in all parts of the country are able to benefit from the opportunities that access to powerful broadband gives in order to change traditional working methods, enable development of new services and business models and new patterns of behaviour."
It added: "All households and businesses should also have good opportunities to use electronic public services with broadband access. As more and more services in society become digital, everyone must be given the opportunity to be connected. Everyday life should run smoothly. It is, in essence, a matter of democracy and rights. "
However, it seems the country is facing similar problems to the UK with reaching out to rural areas.
"Although broadband access is generally good in Sweden, we still have thousands of households and enterprises with no access to broadband today," Torstensson was quoted as saying in an article by the Daily Telegraph.
"Sweden is a sparsely populated, elongated country... The need for broadband is as great in rural areas as in other parts of the country."
Get the ITPro. daily newsletter
Receive our latest news, industry updates, featured resources and more. Sign up today to receive our FREE report on AI cyber crime & security - newly updated for 2024.
Earlier this year, the British government committed to the recommendation from Lord Carter's Digital Britain report to make sure everyone in the UK has at least 2Mbps broadband by 2012.
However, controversy has risen over the [a href="https://www.itpro.com/611761/digital-britain-broadband-tax-should-we-pay
" target="_blank"]50 pence-a-month broadband tax[/a] proposed to pay for the scheme with both the Conservative Party and the chief executive of TalkTalk slamming the plans.
Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.
Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.
HPE’s ‘one-click AI solution’ for private cloud cuts project times from months to a ‘single moment’
Why are so many AI projects destined for failure? Inexperienced staff, poor planning, and a shoehorned approach to agile development are all stifling innovation
So you lost your job at Klarna to AI – at least your former coworkers get a pay rise
Resources
Get the ITPro. daily newsletter
Receive our latest news, industry updates, featured resources and more. Sign up today to receive our FREE report on AI cyber crime & security - newly updated for 2024.