In one report after another, the Swedish capital is being hailed for its integrated telecom and IT network, active citizen involvement in public policy and green environment, making it a so-called smart city.

Stockholm was the first city to be awarded EU Green Capital status in 2010, the year after being crowned Intelligent Community of the Year by the Intelligent Community Forum in 2009. “Stockholm’s approach to smart city investment is citizen centric, and emerged from their work creating e-government services,” a British government report by Ove Arup & Partners, said. “The city has funded a large fibre-optic broadband network through Stokab, a city-owned company, and sees itself as a test-bed for new technology.”

Last year, a report concluded that billions of kronor have been added to Stockholm’s economy thanks to its network of superfast fibre internet and innovative IT infrastructure. “The most important conclusion is that fibre is profitable, both for the users and for society,” said Crister Mattsson, senior adviser for the report’s authors, Acreo Swedish ICT.

Stockholm was also the first city in the world to roll out the 4G mobile network.

Search engine giant Google has said that Stockholm’s ICT infrastructure had made the city an attractive location for businesses and encouraged innovation. In 2006, the city began investing in e-government, devoting €70 million to set up e-government services and make them appropriate, customisable and accessible to all citizens.

The ICT cluster in Kista Science Centre adds to the smart equation. The area is home to a number of international tech-giants, such as Ericsson, Microsoft and IBM, as well as for thousands of small ICT firms. Kista “acts as a focal point for technology innovation and economic development around smart city technologies”, the British report said.

– – –

This article was sponsored by Stockholm Business Region.

More news about Stockholm?
Subscribe to Invest in Stockholm Newsletter today.