Elisa has announced the establishment of a joint venture with Lounea, which operates in Western Finland, to create a nationwide fibre network, starting with pilot sites early this year. Lounea will be responsible for installing the network and selling services under the Elisa brand. Elisa will provide the services and do the invoicing.
Juha Laukkanen, business director at Elisa, said Lounea has long experience in successful fibre construction and sales. The venture will extend the availability of Elisa's fibre network and services to new areas. He said demand for high-speed connections has grown significantly, which Elisa can fulfil via fibre and via its rapidly expanding 5G network.
Jari Lahti, director of Lounea, said the venture with Elisa will enable it to create even more fibre-optic networks, which is important to Lounea's strategy. The networks will be established in areas where Lounea does not have its own networks and is not planning any. Construction will continue on the basis of experience gained from the pilot sites, in accordance with customer demand.
Lounea says it is Finland's fourth-largest telecommunications operator and serves the public, businesses and government organisations. It has built fibre-optic capacity for almost 100,000 households. Lounea employs nearly 320 people and in 2019, its revenue was EUR 58 million.
