Com_Hem
Com Hem
Swedish telecommunications brand
Com Hem was a Swedish brand owned by Tele2 AB[1] which supplied Triple Play services that included cable television, broadband internet and fixed-line telephone.
Founded in 1983 as Televerket Kabel-TV as part of the former state-owned Televerket, the company was successively named Svenska Kabel-TV AB and Telia InfoMedia TeleVision AB, before becoming 'Com Hem' (a play on the Swedish phrase Kom hem, "come home") in 1999. In 2003, Telia had to sell Com Hem to EQT Partners to satisfy EU competition requirements as a result of its merger with Sonera of Finland that same year.[2]
In 2021 the company had 135+ TV channels available. Digital TV was introduced in 1997. A broadband service that used the company's proprietary cable network was launched in 1999. In 2004 VoIP telephone was introduced, and the company became Sweden's first nationwide triple play service provider.
All households connected to the Com Hem Cable Network had access to broadband Internet services, services, fixed-line telephony and a wide range of TV channels. Com Hem also provided interactive services that facilitated management, communication and maintenance for property owners.
The company had around 1000 employees, with offices in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö, Västerås, Härnösand, Sundsvall and Örnsköldsvik.
In 2011, EQT sold the company to BC Partners. Com Hem held its initial public offering (IPO) on 17 June 2014 and became listed on Stockholm Stock Exchange. On 27 April 2017 Kinnevik acquired approximately 18.5% of the stock and became Com Hem's largest stock holder. Com Hem also operated mobile services as an MVNO using its own brand and since early-2020, also with an online-only brand called Penny (managed by Tele2 since 2021) whose operations are modelled after Google Fi Wireless, and is also a broadband flanker brand using Com Hem/Tele2's fixed-line infrastructure.[3] Com Hem's mobile services utilised the Tele2 (SUNAB and Net4Mobility) infrastructure in 2G GSM, 3G UMTS and 4G LTE.
Com Hem had been ranked as the TV brand with the least satisfied customers in Sweden in 2007, 2008 and 2009 according to Svenskt Kvalitetsindex, an independent customer survey company.[citation needed] It has since almost reached the top of the ranking with the most satisfied customers, according to the same source.[4][5] Analogue channels were withdrawn from the cable television network on 8 September 2020.[citation needed]
On 27 April 2021, the owner Tele2 discontinued the use of the Com Hem brand, while continuing to provide the same services under its own brand.[6]