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Finland - Market Intelligence Report
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Market Intelligence Reports provide an invaluable mix of vital market data and background information, including telecoms regulation. Consolidation within the telecommunications market of Finland continues apace into 2007. Desperate to maintain their shares of the fixed-line telecommunications market, incumbent operators TeliaSonera Finland and the Elisa Communications group are engaged in a long-running acquisition spree, each vying to seek out and bring under their control the most financially attractive of Finland's 40 or so independent local telephone companies (most of which are gathered together under Finnet Ltd, the country's third-largest fixed-line player). Nevertheless, the incumbents are themselves beginning to face more potent competition from a host of new fixed-line and wireless service providers. The incumbents' best prospects now appear to lie in providing Internet access and content services, such is the appetite for these products in the Nordic region. The December 2002 merger of Telia of Sweden with Finland's Sonera meant that Telia's existing fixed-line and mobile communications networks in Finland had to be divested to avoid creating an overlap of key network infrastructure. Finnet acquired Telia Finland's mobile business in 2003, and this has been repositioned within the Finnet group's DNA service provider business. Sweden-based Song Networks had acquired Telia's Finnish fixed-line business in 2001. In April 2004, TeliaSonera Finland completed a five-month transaction covering the acquisition of south-western Finland-based Auria Group, including Turku Telephone. Elisa Communications has also moved quickly to bring a number of the country's larger and more influential independent telephone companies under its wing, including Soon Communications and Yomi. Furthermore, in June 2006, Elisa offered to buy all the shares in Lounet it did not already own, and, by May 2007, Elisa had acquired 80.51% of Lounet, with the two companies announcing that Lounet would merge with Elisa. Elisa had also been successful in acquiring three key national backbone operators: Datatie Oy (Finland's largest data communications network operator); Finnet International (the country's largest international network operator); and, Radiolinja (Finland's premier alternative wireless network operator, holding GSM 900/1800 and UMTS licences). In 2006, Elisa successfully acquired one of the largest Internet service providers in Finland, Saunalahti. In February 2007, six Finnish provincial telephone companies - Lännen Puhelin Oy, Lohjan Puhelin Oy, Oulun Puhelin Oy, Päijät-Hämeen Puhelin Oyj, Satakunnan Puhelin, and the telecommunications operations of Enfo Group - announced that they will merge with the Finnet Group before 2008. The owners of the companies in the merger will retain ownership of a new company to be created by the merger of the provincial companies, with the exception of Lohjan Puhelin, whose business operations are to be bought out by Finnet for an undisclosed sum. The introduction of number portability in the mobile market in July 2003 paved the way for a few new entrants in the sector, while others substantially ramped up their service provider operations. By August 2004, and within one year of the introduction of mobile number portability, 994,000 numbers had been ported. By October 2005, this number had reached 2.774 million and 3.5 million by October 2006. Elsewhere in the mobile market, the terms of its UMTS licensees in mainland Finland was eased in 2004. Licensees are now allowed to jointly construct and use a portion of their networks. In October 2004, TeliaSonera Mobile launched its UMTS network commercially in 20 locations in Finland, though it continued to introduce other high-speed data transmission methods, such as EDGE, into the GSM network. The following month, Elisa launched its 3G network for commercial use and was offering Vodafone's new Vodafone Mobile Connect 3G/GPRS data card. Finnet launched its 3G network in December 2005. However, Tele2's licence was withdrawn and Tele2 subsequently exited the Finnish telecommunications market altogether.
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