On Tue, 29 May 2001, Sean M. Doran wrote:
Thus, instead of a dozen or so CLEC-style companies ripping up the same set of streets, Stokab does it approximately once, and provides fibre pairs as necessary to these companies, and any other buyers who come along (lots of corporate buyers use Stokab instead of the traditional telcos or CLECs).
Stockholm also has the advantage of being built on top of a large network of underground tunnels and passageways. STOKAB uses these which also means they most of the time doesn't have to rip up the streets at all. There are also plenty of other ducting around, and a lot of the time, when other piping is being done (heating, cooling etc) others ducts are put in place at the same time, by virtue of the municipalities having to know about all ducting being done on "their" turf. There are plenty of other cities and municipalities in Sweden going the STOKAB way, Malmö (third largest city in Sweden) taking an initiative half a year ago and are now starting to deliver fibers to people who want to rent. They have access to the power companys ducting so they also do not have to dig up the streets really, a lot of the ducting being in place already. Basically, if I want a fiber in Stockholm I call STOKAB, I tell them adresses, if I want to I can tell them exact floor and location in the building and they will for an additional fee put up an ODF with my connection anywhere I want at both ends. This usually takes between 4 and 14 weeks depending on whether they're present close to my both locations (in the same block) or whether they have to do more advanced work. The installation fee might be different depending on digging and how interested they are in establishing themselves in my block. Most of the time they're already present in the immediate neighbourhood anyway, so installation fees are usually in the few $1k range, and the rent cost of fiber are around $100-150 per km fiber (pair) and month. -- Mikael Abrahamsson email: swmike@swm.pp.se