Com Hem
More info
- Owner
- Tele2 (since 2018)
- Type
- Cable TV and broadband operator
Swedish cable operator that turned the coax already in apartment-block walls into broadband for a large slice of the country.
Com Hem grew out of the cable TV network built by the Swedish state telecom and later run by Telia, which for decades had piped television into multi-family housing. Telia sold the business to private equity in 2003, and after a few changes of owner it listed in 2014. The pitch was simple: the cable was already in the wall, and DOCSIS let it carry internet without anyone digging a trench.
Through the 2000s Com Hem was one of Sweden's largest broadband providers, and its customer-service queues were about as well known as its network. In 2018 it merged with Tele2. Fibre has since eaten much of cable's advantage, but the coax is still in the walls and still carrying traffic.