The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency, Traficom, said fibre connections were available to 38 percent of households in Finland at the end of 2019, and almost 1 million fibre subscriptions were in use, but with large variations in availability depending on area and type of residential building. Total investment in fibre-optics has not increased in recent years and more money would need to be spent to even out regional and housing type differences.
Traficom said there is still much room for improvement in fibre availability, especially for townhouses. Consumers still consider fibre too expensive, and demand does not necessarily match supply.
Rural detached homes more likely to have fibre access than urban ones
In the three-and-a-half years running up to 31 December 2019, the number of fibre subscriptions almost doubled and fibre lines were available to 26 percent of all Finnish buildings. In urban boroughs, only 17 percent of detached houses had access to fibre-optics, but in rural municipalities, 38 percent of detached homes had fibre access.
Consumers find fibre connection price a deterrent
A consumer survey by Traficom in the spring of 2020 asked how much respondents would be willing to pay for access to optical fibre. Traficom has estimated the average price of a fibre connection at EUR 1,500 to EUR 2,000. Only 9 percent of respondents would be willing to pay this average price to get fibre and the vast majority considers that it should cost less than EUR 1,000.
Another survey by Traficom found one quarter of Finns believe they already have a fibre connection accessible to them, and another quarter believes that such a line would be in place in three years at the latest. Just over a fifth think they will never have access to a fibre network connection.
Spending on access and subscriber networks makes up 70% of fibre investment
Fibre-optic investment in Finland has been over EUR 170 million a year for the last two years. In that time, fibre investments in the access and subscriber networks have accounted for almost 70 percent of all fibre spending. The other 30 percent goes on the backbone network and base station connections. Fibre optic investments account for about two-thirds of fixed network investments and just under 30 percent of total telecommunications investments.
Average retail prices for fibre broadband subscriptions fall over past 2 years
Average retail prices in the gigabit broadband speed class have fallen over the last two years from EUR 58.00 to EUR 46.00 per month. Subscriptions for services with both downloads and uploads at 100 Mbps or more cost an average of EUR 36.00 per month. The prices of these subscriptions have been declining over the last two years. The technology used in such a speed class is fibre in every case.
