Stockholm // 2004-03-25

PacketFront selected by Mälarenergi Stadsnät

PacketFront and Mälarenergi Stadsnät join forces to deliver cutting-edge FTTH to the inhabitants of large Swedish city

PacketFront, Sweden’s leading broadband solution supplier, has entered a partnership with one of the genuine trendsetters on the Swedish urban network market, the Västerås-based Mälarenergi Stadsnät AB. The collaboration is expected to set the standard for many other players on the broadband market.

Besides its own systems and products at the cutting edge of broadband technology, PacketFront also has considerable experience of the broadband market in Sweden and internationally.

Västerås-based Mälarenergi Stadsnät AB sets the standards on the Swedish urban network market. The company has produced what its calls an “IKEA model” for urban networks – one that is highly accessible, easy to administrate, inexpensive, and based on genuine freedom of choice for the user. Many other Swedish towns have adopted the Västerås model. The president of Mälarenergi, Robert Kjellberg, was recently named Metro Network Entrepreneur of the Year, by the Swedish metro network trade organization Ssnf.

With its 22,000 household connections, Mälarenergi is already a large player on the urban network market. It also has 1,700 companies, all the local state-run schools, council offices, companies and all of the Västmanland county council healthcare clinics. In 2007, when the current expansion project in Västerås is finally completed and Byggnads AB Mimer, the town’s council-owned housing company, has its 13,000 apartments hooked up to the network, it will comprise no less than 50,000 connected households.

Mälarenergi’s urban network is based on a vision of the virtual society, in which “everyone has access to everything and everyone – at high speed, at all times”.

“Once we had formulated our vision and decided what technologies and products we needed to realise it, we were unable to find them on the market,” says Robert Kjellberg, president of Mälarenergi Stadsnät.

“Not before PacketFront arrived on the scene,” he adds.

Three years have passed since then. Side by side, both companies have been paying careful attention to each other’s work and business situation. PacketFront has developed the technologies and the products that Mälarenergi needs to elevate its urban network onto a higher level – and Mälarenergi has grown. Together, the two companies will now develop the business model even further. They also want to make the operation of the urban network more efficient, which they will achieve partly through the automation of both provisioning and configuration, and in so doing minimise the running costs of tomorrow’s urban network.

“Our partnership with Mälarenergi Stadsnät is strategically very important to us,” says PacketFront chief executive Martin Thunman. “We’re proud to be able to contribute towards helping such a prominent, competent and highly respected urban network company as Mälarenergi Stadsnät to realise its unique, future-confident visions.”

To start with, PacketFront’s ASR 4000 broadband routers and its BECS™ control and provisioning system will be installed in all of Mälarenergi’s new connections. Mälarenergi will eventually be replacing its existing equipment so that in the future it will have only one system, regardless of access technology (fibre, cat 5, VDSL or ADSL), in its network. Read more

About Mälarenergi Stadsnät AB
Mälarenergi Stadsnät AB was formed in 2000 and is owned by Mälarenergi, a council-owned power company in Västerås. The company operates the Västerås network, which extends over the whole town. In January 2004 some 20,000 households were connected to Mälarenergi, and Byggnads AB Mimer, the town’s council-owned housing company, will soon have its 13,000 apartments hooked up to the network. Over 1,700 companies in Västerås, with a total of 15,000 employees, are also connected, as are all the local state-run schools, council offices, companies and all of the Västmanland county council healthcare clinics. Read more at www.malarenergi.se/stadsnat

About PacketFront
PacketFront is a leading supplier on the market for purpose-built and intelligent solutions for IP-based, true broadband networks. The company’s solution enables flexible new business models, such as operator-neutral networks with support for multiple services and competing service providers. Its award-winning BECS™ control and provisioning system control enables automation and service differentiation, the keys to profitability for broadband operators. The company is based in Stockholm and the team comes originally from Bredbandsbolaget and Cisco Systems. Today, its products are in operation in a great many broadband networks around the world. www.packetfront.com

For more information, contact:
Martin Thunman, President of PacketFront: 08-709 82 11,
Robert Kjellberg, president Mälarenergi Stadsnät AB: 021-39 52 14,