BROADEN - Broadband Across Border Sweden-Norway | Shaping Europe’s digital future

The BROADEN project managed to roll out optic fibre cable in a rural area across an EU border. With transnational cooperation between Torsby municipality in Sweden and Grue municipality in Norway high speed internet from Sweden was made available at the Norwegian side. The area between Torsby municipality in the county of Värmland in Sweden and Grue municipality in the Innlandet County in Norway is very rural and consists mostly of dense forest. But there is a village and a conference hotel on the Norwegian side of the border, and they need good broadband connection. The project was granted a special Jury Broadband Award 2022.

Fibre cable is being laid through the lake Röjden — Elisabeth Johansson, Relacom

Partners from Sweden (Värmland County Administrative Board & Torsby municipality) and Norway (Innlandet County Council & Municipality of Grue) started by sorting out the legal issues of connecting Norway with broadband from Sweden, e.g. checking the regulations of the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS) and Norwegian Communications Authority (NKOM). Partners found out there are no legal obstacles. Therefore, the partners decided to lay fibre cable from Sweden to Norway.

On the Swedish side, one-kilometre optic fibre cable was placed in the lake Röjden connecting an already existing station in the small village of Röjdåfors in Torsby to the Norwegian border. At the Swedish – Norwegian border an access point was deployed. On the Norwegian side, a two-kilometre fibre cable was placed from the access point through the same lake and further 800 metre fibre in the ground to the Norwegian Spa hotel Finnskogtoppen. The Norwegian company Oneco built the infrastructure and the internet service to the hotel is distributed by the Swedish company Telia.

Estimated total project costs on Norwegian side of the border are EUR 91.000 euro, on the Swedish side of the border - EUR 30.000.

For more information visit the project website.

BROADEN - Broadband Across Border Sweden-Norway

Last update