Discover the magic of the COS Advent Calendar. Each day reveals a new surprise, making the holiday season even more special, with best practices, new features, case studies, white papers, and how-tos!
Too many areas still run on legacy networks and patchwork builds. Today’s life needs reliable, low-latency, symmetrical capacity. Only fiber scales for decades—not just product cycles.
Traditional ROI favors dense metros. Rural means longer drops, fewer passings, thinner margins—the result being “have” vs “have-not” neighbourhoods. Communities are responding with public-private models: keep the physical network local, let private operators do what they do best, and share the upside as adoption grows—without the city having to “be the ISP”.
Open Access separates the network into three layers—infrastructure (fiber/conduit), operations (active electronics), and services (ISPs and applications).One entity builds and maintains the fiber; many providers compete over it. Think airport + airlines: one shared, capital-intensive infrastructure; many consumer choices riding on top. This structure lifts take-rates (more choice → more buyers), reduces overbuild waste, and makes rural deployments cash-flow positive/ROI-positive on realistic timelines. It’s also future-proof: you can invite new providers or new classes of services (tele-health, smart ag, security) without touching the glass.
Two practical truths make Open Access work in the real world:
→ fun fact, one of our customers runs their network with a team of two
City of Superior, WI: stood up a marketplace where residents compare providers, order, and manage accounts—fast path from concept to day-one take-rate.
Clearwater County, Alberta, Canada: Arcadis + Calix + COS—shared fiber platform serving multiple last-mile technologies with a consumer-friendly marketplace.
Kitsap PUD, WA: community-owned, open access; thousands of passings, 6+ ISPs, automated sign-ups to settlements—scaling without extra headcount.
Own the long-lived fiber infrastructure, invite competition through more customer choice, and automate the journey. You get higher take-rates, lower churn, healthier unit economics—and real options for people who were told to “move for opportunity.”
If you’re exploring how to take your “nowhere” to “somewhere,” let’s map demand, choose the right Open Access model, and stand up a marketplace your residents will actually use. That first flawless click on Join is closer than you think.
I am 44 years old and was born and raised a little bit outside of Umeå. I have an education in computer science at Umeå University.
What caught your interest in COS Systems?
I worked at COS for nine years, then moved to the audiobook industry, where I’ve worked for seven years to expand my views. Now I feel it’s a good time to come back and bring new experience and perspectives.
What are your goals for the coming months?
Getting back up to speed and bringing some good practices to improve our processes.
Why should people contact you and press the “connect with Björn” button?
I am always up for conversations about pretty much anything!
Tell us a fun fact about yourself.
I have an exceptionally acute sense of smell. While it offers little practical benefit, the drawback is that it makes me acutely aware of unpleasant smells.
If you could swap jobs with anyone at COS Systems for a day, who would it be and why?
Björn Wännman, it would be interesting to see things from the sales side.
What’s your go-to productivity hack when things get busy?
Not really a hack, but focus on a task at the time and try to ignore other things.
If you could instantly become an expert in one new skill, what would it be?
I’ve worked on both front-end and back-end development, but I’ve often relied on others for the visual design. If my design skills were stronger, I’d be more independent.”
What’s your favorite way to unwind after a long workday?
Usually, any form of exercise does the trick. Either a run, a long walk, or maybe a visit to the gym
Lastly, what’s one word your friends or colleagues would use to describe you?
Energetic
Welcome back Björn!
COS Systems delivers a cloud-based platform built for broadband operators, automating operations from demand generation through provisioning, billing, and field service. Operators run COS Business Engine for retail ISP operations or COS Wholesale Engine for multi-provider Open Access networks, with COS FSM and COS Prospector extending the platform for field service management and door-to-door sales.