Finland's broadband faster, more affordable in cities

Finland's big city dwellers are more likely to have fast and fixed internet connections than Finns who live in rural areas, according to telecom regulator Ficora's market review on the consumers' use of internet connections in 2011. More specifically, 30 percent of those living in large cities other than the capital Helsinki have a fast connection, compared to more than 20 percent of households outside the big cities have a fast internet connection. The fastest connections are most commonly found in the Greater Helsinki area. More than 40 percent of those living there have a fast, fixed-line internet connection installed in their homes. Big city dwellers, especially the young, pay considerably less for their internet connection. They pay approximately EUR 25 for their fast internet connections per month, which is five times less than what those living elsewhere in Finland pay. In large cities, there is more variety in the supply of fast, fixed-line internet connections, and competition over customers keeps the prices down. In 2011, increasingly more Finns acquired a mobile broadband connection. At present, every second broadband household has mobile broadband. The majority of mobile broadband connections have been acquired in 2011 by those households that have a fixed broadband connection. Therefore, Ficora estimates that the growth potential of mobile broadband connections is the greatest in households where it is used side-by-by with another connection. Although the cost of mobile broadband is much less than that of fixed broadband, Ficora believes it is unlikely that many internet users will give up their fixed connection and depend on mobile broadband alone. The review is based on information from a consumer survey commissioned by Ficora on communications services 2011. For the survey, TNS Gallup interviewed 3,000 consumers in the age group of 15-79 in continental Finland in October 2011.