DECEMBER 11, 2006 - Swedish TV history will be written today. FastTV has signed an IPTV (also known as broadband TV) operator’s agreement with Teracom, which for the first time ever will be opening up its broadband network to digital TV. Almost one million households will be given the chance to choose IPTV from FastTV in 2007 in what is a major breakthrough for the Swedish TV distribution market.

Back in the spring of 2006, a number of households in Värmland tried out IPTV from FastTV, using Teracom’s broadband network. The test was so successful that the parties decided to implement a commercial launch. The agreement has now been signed, and FastTV will become the first operator to delivery IPTV using Teracom’s broadband network. “We anticipate being able to offer IPTV to households in the areas where we have built broadband networks very shortly now, which means about 500,000 households, mainly in Värmland, Dalarna, Jämtland and Sörmland, with the first sales in Dalarna,” says Ulf Gustafsson, Sales Director at Teracom.

FastTV’s infrastructure customer base totals 200,000 households to date, and with Teracom’s 500,000, the company’s customer base will expand immediately to almost 700,000 households. And the expansion of Teracom’s network in 2007 will make FastTV’s IPTV service available to almost one million households.

The partnership between FastTV and Teracom is a breakthrough for the Swedish TV distribution market. Other distribution networks are usually linked to a specific telecoms operator. Teracom, by contrast, is unique because it has built up competitively neutral broadband networks with several service providers. This not only gives households increased freedom to choose their preferred range of products and services, it also gives FastTV the opportunity to offer something unique in the field of IPTV.

“I believe mobility and interactivity will become increasingly important in the future. Consumers are going to want access to their TV services on their PCs and mobile phones as well. Quite simply, it should be possible to watch TV wherever, whenever and on any platform you like. Tomorrow’s TV will mean bringing a completely new approach to freedom of choice on the customer’s terms. The agreement with Teracom is a big step towards this realising this scenario,” says Stephan Guiance, President of FastTV.

“For Teracom, IPTV is an important complement to our traditional distribution of radio and TV via the land-based network. We believe that tomorrow’s TV viewing will mean a shift from fixed to mobile, from a fixed time to my time, and from TV listings to my listings, and this is absolutely in line with our position as Sweden’s first media operator,” says Ulf Gustafsson.

More about the service

FastTV will offer its customers 5 e-mail addresses with a 50MB mailbox for every customer, spam filtering and virus scanning, and 50MB of web space. The service options currently available via Teracom’s network are IPTV with Internet browsing, up to 24 Mbit/s, 8 Mbit/s, 2 Mbit/s and 0.5 Mbit/s.

Contacts for further information:
FastTV, Stephan Guiance, tel +46 (0) 70 595 13 73, [email protected]
Press contact, Susan Rose, tel +46 (0) 735 81 35 40, [email protected]
Teracom Ulf Gustafsson, tel +46 (0) 73 079 75 47, [email protected]
Press contact, Lennart Ivarsson, tel +46 (0) 708 91 20 21, [email protected]

About FastTV.net AB

FastTV’s business concept is to offer interactive services and entertainment in the Scandinavian TV market, via a broadband infrastructure. The services are offered via the FastTV Media portal, where customers not only have access to the channel package of their choice, but can browse the Internet, send e-mail and order films for download directly to their TV. The company was founded in 2003 by Stephan Guiance and Claus Michael Drastrup. In April 2006, all of the shares in FastTV were acquired by the broadband company, SkyCom. FastTV’s goal is to establish a presence on all relevant distribution platforms and to reach a majority of Scandinavian households by 2010. FastTV was listed on Aktie Torget (the Equities Market Place) on 1 December 2006.

About Teracom

Teracom is Sweden’s first media operator. We can offer a variety of communication pathways for radio, TV, the Internet, and sound and image downloads. We aim to ensure that people and companies have access to a wide range of time- and location-independent media services. The Group also has subsidiary companies offering complementary products and services. The Teracom Group has a turnover of approximately SEK 2.7 billion and around 650 employees. To find out more about Teracom, please visit www.teracom.se.