Finland – Mobile call charges cheapest in Europe
Finland has one of the most advanced mobile markets in the world and has been an early adopter of emerging technologies. The world’s first commercial GSM network was launched in the country in 1991, and it was the first in Europe to award licences for 3G mobile networks. In December 1998, Finland also became the first country in which the number of mobile phones exceeded that of fixed-line phones.
There are around ten major mobile network operators or service operators in Finland, though most of the market is controlled by a triopoly of the established players TeliaSonera (operating under the Sonera brand as well as its low-cost Tele Finland brand), Elisa (which also manages the service operator Saunalahti) and DNA: the merger of Telia and Sonera in 2002 obliged Telia to relinquish its Finnish mobile business, while in late 2005 Tele2 also withdrew, citing market conditions and the regulatory environment. These companies account for 98% of all mobile phone subscriptions. The mobile networks operators host several resellers and Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs). Ålands Mobiltelefon operates a mobile network in the Ålands area. There are about seven mobile service operators which also provide mobile broadband services, while there are also players which offer customers mobile broadband services together with fixed broadband services, but no mobile voice services.
Competition between the three principal mobile telcos coupled with regulatory controls has contributed to the gradual reduction in the price of mobile calls. An April 2008 survey by the Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications showed that mobile call charges in Finland were the cheapest in Europe, while Finnish mobile broadband subscriptions were also the least expensive.
Roaming
Four operators are designated as having Significant Market Power (SMP) in the market for call termination on their own networks. Since 1992, TeliaSonera has signed roaming agreements with over 250 operator partners in over 150 countries around the world. Elisa and Finnet have similarly comprehensive roaming agreements in place with operators globally. Elisa revised the international roaming pricing of its mobile calls and SMS messages in January 2007. In the new pricing model, calls made or received abroad are divided into different zones, each with two price categories for calls on the preferred operator’s network and for calls on other operators’ networks.
In August 2007 the European Commission (EC) legislated wholesale and retail tariffs for roaming voice calls across the EU. The Roaming Regulation included:
- a wholesale price caps of €0.30 per minute;
- a retail price cap (from October 2007) of €0.49 per minute for roaming calls within the EU and €0.24 per minute for calls received.
Further reductions in wholesale and retail tariffs were implemented in June 2008 and June 2009, and regulated tariff were extended to 2013.
IIR’s Roaming World Congress running from April 19 2010 in Barcelona includes sessions on roaming customer segmentation, data propositions for the iPhone, ways to encourage new roamers and increase the profitability of your roaming operations.
For event information see – http://www.iir-telecoms.com/event/roaming
For more information see -
- Finland – Telecoms, IP Networks, Digital Media and Forecasts
- Finland – Mobile Market – Overview, Statistics & Forecasts
Tagged in: Europe, Finland
