COMPUTER-RELATED COMMUNICATIONS IN SWEDEN
by Kelley Boan


First, let me clarify a few things about the state of telecommunications in Sweden. I work as a consultant for a subsidiary of Teleinvest AB, which is a holding company under Televerket, the Swedish Telecommunications Administration (STA). This sounds a little confusing, but actually it is very much like the structure of the U.S. telecommunications market, AD (After Divestiture). You've probably seen the diagrams of a typical Regional Holding Company formed by the Bell System breakup (Pacific Telesis Group, NYNEX, etc.) where the telephone companies (PacBell, New York Bell, etc.) on one side and the "unregulated" companies (PacTel, New York Bell Leasing, etc.) are on the other. My company fits in under "unregulated" companies.

This doesn't sound like the typical European PTT (Post, Telephone and Telegraph) and it shouldn't. The STA is not a PTT. It has no connection with the post office at all. The STA is a public service corporation more in line with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting than anything else. As such, it operates as a commercial entity required to maintain a satisfactory level of profit.

The STA does have some legal monopolies, but they are restricted to PABX (private automatic branch exchanges), modems above 1200 bps and coin phones. There is no network monopoly, although a potential competitor would need to find rights of way to subscribers. Telephone terminals will go the way of the U.S. market on November 1, 1985, when "type-accepted" sets will become legal in Sweden.

Data Communication

There are two public data nets in Sweden, the X.21 Datex system and the X.25 Datapac system. Since the type of networking ENA is interested in uses X.25, I will limit the discussion to that. The Datapac net works the same way as other international nets described in earlier issues of "Netweaver". One must have an account on Datapac to use it; there is no such thing as a "collect call." To access Datapac one need only dial 0024 (1200 bps) or 0023(300 bps) from any exchange in Sweden. Therefore, all user to node calls are billed as local calls. After entering account name and password, the user enters the network address (either in Sweden or international) and he is on. The international gateway is in Stockholm, and from there one can hit Tymnet, Telenet or Uninet, plus other European packet networks.

ISDN

The Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) is coming to Sweden by 1987, when all major trunk lines and switches will be fully digital (64 kbps channels). The ISDN is too complicated for a long discussion here, but the concept is to have data, voice, and (some type of) video all available over the same wire to the subscriber. Currently a good deal of work is going into the provision of services over the ISDN to keep the definition from changing to "Innovation Subscribers Don't Need."

Telebox

Telebox, a nationwide electronic mail system based on GTE Telenet's Telemail software, will be introduced next year. This X.400-compatible e-mail system will offer e-mail and Telex service nationwide through the STA network. It will also offer gateway service to other X.400 mail services outside Sweden, such as Telemail in the U.S.

Videotex

The STA offers a videotex network as well, which seems to have met better acceptance by the public than similar offerings in the U.S. It is a color-page system and offers news, sports information, weather, and so on.

COM

No discussion of the Swedish telecommunication scene would be complete without a mention of COM, the computer conferencing system. COM is offered by Stockholm University's Computer Center, QZ, and is not part of the STA. It is accessed by either the Datapac system or straight dial up lines at either 300 or 1200 bps.

COM was developed from experience with early U.S. systems such as FORUM and is now widely used in Europe. It runs on DEC 10/20 machines as well as other systems. It shares some features with Parti and FORUM but is different from both as well. One major difference is its ability to support parallel conferences (conferences operating on two different hosts). Another is its "comment links," which allow comments in one conference to link to other relevant conferences.

There are two COM databases operating at QZ, one in Swedish, one in English. Currently there are about 700 conferences in Swedish, another 300 or so in English. Most international users are on the English system, for obvious reasons. The English COM database also has gateways to the JANET in England and MAILNET in the U.S., allowing even wider access to its conferences.

That is a quick tour of the Swedish telecommunications scene. I'll be glad to answer any questions I may have raised but not answered in this fast look at the services.

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Author's note: Kelley Boan is a transplanted American currently
working in Sweden. He notes that the above information reflects two
months' experience in the country, and apologizes for any accidental
inaccuracies which may have crept in.