28 Jul 2011Finland Broadband Overview

Finland's telecoms sector has a unique structure, inherited from its history prior to privatisation. The telephone service across the country was in the hands of a number of local municipal operators ranging from the Helsinki Telephone Company, now called Elisa, to various other companies owning less than 100,000 lines. Finland's initiation of new fixed-line technologies such as DSL was fragmented, with very different experiences in different parts of the country. Anticipating thousands of residential broadband subscriptions and hundreds of corporate subscriptions, Finnish telecom companies Mikkelin Puhelin and Savonlinnan Puhelin came to an agreement in late 2005 to build WiMAX compatible broadband networks in eastern Finland, further aiding the rise in broadband penetration.

In December 2008, Finland committed to meeting a universal service obligation of 1 Mbps broadband throughout the country at a "reasonable price" without public funding by the end of 2010. In October 2009, the country adopted a law obliging telecom operators to provide all Finnish residents with broadband connections with at least 1 Mbps, effectively becoming the first country in the world to make broadband access a legal right. The obligation came into force on 1 July 2010 – six months earlier than initially envisaged in the national Broadband Action Plan for 2009-2015.

In 2008 telecom operators announced that they would increasingly invest in fibre networks which will allow speeds of up to 100 Mbps. These investments will primarily focus on major cities where fibre technology will be used to replace or supplement the copper networks. In addition, several non-profit regional network organisations continued to expand fibre networks in smaller localities. The regional networks also joined forces to set up co-operation groups aimed at increasing the interest of telecom operators in providing regional customers with more versatile and less expensive services.

Finnish government is committed, as part of the “Broadband 2015” project, to providing 100 Mbps access to 99 per cent of the population by 2015. The aim of this project is to ensure that end users are no further than 2 km from a 100 Mbps fibre or cable network. To fund the state contribution the government auctioned frequencies in the 2.5-2.69 GHz band at the end of 2009. Some of the proceeds were used for network rollout with the shortfall being met by a tax on telecom operators based on broadband subscriber numbers.

The plan is progressing well. According to data from 2010, 95 per cent of all Finnish counties are connected to fibre. This represents 99 per cent of the population. Over 50 per cent of the counties have more than one fibre network provider. To promote superfast broadband take up, the government offers tax deductions to end-users who pay for broadband installation. In addition, all new transport infrastructures are to have pre-installed pipes which can be used for laying optical fibre.