Swedish communications regulator PTS said that 95 percent of homes and businesses in Sweden at least had the option to get gigabit broadband in October 2020, meaning they were either actually connected to a fibre network, or were located cloes to one. However, the government’s target of 95 percent accessing 100 Mbps internet service last year was missed, said its mobile coverage and broadband mapping report for 2020.
The rate of homes and businesses having at least the option to connect to 1 Gbps service in 2020 was up by 2.8 percentage points over 2019. PTS said the broadest availability of gigabit service was in the counties of Stockholm, Gotland and Halland. Outside built-up areas, 68 percent of households at least have the option of 1 Gbps service, up by more than 9 percentage points year on year. The target for 2025 is 98 percent access to 1 Gbps service.
The report shows that 86 percent of homes and businesses in Sweden had access in 2020 to broadband at a minimum speed of 100 Mbps, up by 2 percentage points compared with 2019. This was below the target of 95 percent. Dan Sjoblom, director-general of the regulator, said SEK 2.85 billion in state funding will be provided to reduce the digital divide between 2020 and 2025.
Turning to mobile connectivity, PTS said the government's aim is for the whole country to have access by 2023 to stable mobile services of good quality in habitually used places such as roads, railways, residential areas and close to buildings and holiday homes. By 2020, coverage of these areas was at 93 percent, which PTS said was a ”marginal increase” over 2019.
