The City of Stockholm has been awarded the Intelligent Community of the Year 2009. The award was announced may 15th at the annual Building the Broadband Economy conference in New York. The award is presented by the Intelligent Community Forum, ICF.

Why Stockholm is named Intelligent community of the Year 2009

Stockholm is the economic and political capital of Sweden. With 42,500 employees, its government is the country's largest employer, so its decisions have a big impact. 

In the mid-90s, Stockholm established a company called Stokab to build an open-access fiber network. Today, the 4,500 km network connects more than 90 competing service providers to government and business customers.  Though the city already has a 98% broadband penetration rate, Stokab will also provide FTTP access to over 95,000 low-income households in public housing by the end of 2009.

Stockholm also manages KISTA Science City, housing more than 1,400 companies, plus a support program for start-up and early-stage companies.

The city's latest focus is to become northern Europe's quality-of-life leader by enlisting all 42,500 employees in a 3-year effort to improving housing, traffic, and the delivery of an already impressive list of online services.

ICF and the Intelligent Community of the Year

ICF is a think tank that studies the economic and social development of the 21st Century community. ICF seeks to share the secrets of success of the world's Intelligent Communities in adapting to the demands of the Broadband Economy, in order to help communities everywhere find sustainable renewal and growth.

Each year, the Intelligent Community Forum, ICF, presents an awards program for Intelligent Communities and the public-sector and private-sector partners who contribute to them. The awards program has two goals: to salute the accomplishments of communities in developing local prosperity and inclusion in the Broadband Economy, and to gather data for ICF's research programs.