The Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS) has decided to grant the Swedish Civil Defence and Resilience Agency (Myndigheten för civilt försvar, MCF) authorisation to use radio transmitters in the 703–713 MHz and 758–768 MHz frequency ranges. MCF will use these frequencies to establish the SWEN (Swedish Emergency Network) communications system.

The Swedish Civil Defence and Resilience Agency (MCF) has applied for authorisation to use spectrum in the 700 MHz band to establish SWEN, a new communications system for organisations responsible for essential public services, which is being developed to replace the existing Rakel system. The frequencies concerned were previously reserved for terrestrial television broadcasting.

As part of its assessment, PTS determined that demand for the spectrum exceeds its availability and therefore decided to limit the number of authorisations to one. The authority conducted a market consultation on the decision to limit the number of authorisations, during which it received one response.

PTS also sought input on the spectrum allocation from the Swedish Security Service and the Swedish Armed Forces.

Since the application concerns activities carried out to safeguard public order, security and health, PTS assessed it under the provision in the Electronic Communications Act that allows exemptions from the general call-for-applications procedure. PTS concluded that there were grounds for granting the authorisation to MCF.

The authorisation enables MCF to continue developing and establishing SWEN, which is intended to provide secure and resilient communications for organisations responsible for essential societal functions.