BROADBAND
While cable modem and DSL customers in the US count themselves lucky to reach download speeds of 1.5 Mbps, Swedes are already cruising the Internet at 10 Mbps - and expect to reach 1 Gbps by 2002. The revolutionary technology that makes this possible? Ethernet LANs, developed in the early '80s at Xerox PARC and now used in millions of corporate intranets worldwide.
Jonas Birgersson is one reason why Sweden is kicking broadband butt. Two years ago, the 29-year-old launched Bredbandsbolaget - Swedish for "broadband company," B2 for short. B2 (www.bredband.com) has already become a significant European broadband player, with a goal of connecting 1 million apartments in two years.
"It's important that we get broadband first," Birgersson says. "If the Americans get it first, they will fill it with their software."
In September, B2 will introduce a customizable broadband portal called Brikks. By arranging brick-shaped modules onscreen, users can instantly access and easily manipulate their favorite online services. They can, for example, assign one brick to manage their film library and another to control their TV set. Then, by dragging a title from the film brick to the TV brick, users can play a movie on TV. Eventually, users won't even need an operating system - they will just click on a brick and the appropriate software will load automatically.
"We have a saying," laughs Birgersson. "'Brikks breaks Windows.'"
B2 already has partnerships with two Internet companies in Italy and hopes to be in millions of homes across Europe within the next several years. In the US, where cable and DSL have a head start and where the abundance of single-family homes makes domestic LANs less practical, B2 faces a more formidable challenge. But some big players have invested in B2, including Intel. "Cable modem is a flawed strategy that we think will quickly collapse," says B2 CEO Peter Ekelund. "Ultimately, the whole world will become a LAN."
And what will people do with all the bandwidth B2 promises? "We don't know what the killer application for broadband will be," Birgersson admits. "But we will give you access to the best technology, because we want your idea in our garden."
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