Our network - a city network

Stokab is a city network based on the mission to build, lease out and maintain a robust and accessible dark fibre network for companies in Stockholm. By having a stable foundation and good conditions for IT development in Stockholm, the city wants to stimulate positive social development and contribute to a modern, sustainable and dynamic city.

What is a city network?

A city network is a broadband network that is geographically limited; usually to one or more municipalities. The purpose of establishing a city network is to ensure that there is an operator-neutral telecommunications infrastructure that should be neutral to all actors. City networks are located in more than 200 of Sweden's 290 municipalities and of the roughly 160 city network organisations, 95 per cent are municipal.

The city networks operate at different levels of the value chain. Most of the city networks are only network owners and act only at the wholesale level where they lease out dark fibre. They then have a so-called passive fibre network. Stokab belongs to this category.

Other city networks also offer an active, i.e. lit, network and act at the level of the communication operator and a few more also offer services at the service level.

What is a communication operator and a service provider, respectively?

Communication operators offer a neutral technical platform where service providers can have the same access to the network. The basic role is to be a neutral operator that ensures that there is the possibility of traffic in the network. Companies operating in this segment may include IPOnly, Bahnhof and Telia, for example.

Service providers, in turn, offer various services to the end user, such as businesses and households. Sometimes the same company acts in both segments, i.e. both as a communication operator and a service provider. Typical companies operating in the service provider sector include Skype, Netflix, King and iZettle.

City networks are unusual abroad

Internationally, city networks are not a common telecommunications solution. Instead, it is most common for communication operators and service providers to build their own networks.