Sonera, TeliaSonera’s Finnish arm, and the local Finnish operator DNA have agreed on mobile network sharing in the sparsely populated Northern and Eastern Finland. The joint venture allows for more efficient build out and operation of radio networks in an area making up 50 percent of Finland’s total territory in which only approximately 15 percent of its population live, improving customer experience in terms of coverage, speed and quality. TeliaSonera is required to reach 99 percent population 4G-coverage in Finland by the end of 2018. This network sharing agreement will enable it to reach this goal more efficiently.
The joint venture “Suomen Yhteisverkko” will build and operate a common radio access network for the parties in 2G, 3G and 4G technologies. The company will own the radio network equipment and rent masts and base station facilities from the operators or third parties. The joint venture is expected to start operating in the beginning of 2015.
The common network means an increased number of base stations, better coverage and more capacity in the more sparsely populated areas of Eastern and Northern Finland. The operators will also combine their 800 MHz frequency blocks to offer faster 4G connections and more capacity to their customers in the area. Network sharing will have no effects on end customer services. Sonera and DNA will independently continue to offer competing services to customers also in the common network area.
The joint venture will be jointly controlled, and equally governed by the consensus principle with Sonera owning 51 percent and DNA 49 percent of the company. Antti Jokinen, previously head of Networks at DNA, has been appointed CEO of the joint venture.
