The two companies already share a network that covers eastern and northern Finland, with 50% of the land area, though only 13.5% of the population.
The extension means “we can bring 5G connections to the area to further improve the quality and speed of the mobile broadband”, said Tommy Olenius, DNA’s senior vice president, technology.
Last year Telenor took ownership of 94.36% of DNA and said it plans to include the company in a new Nordic cluster of its businesses in the region.
That means its operations in Norway – where Telenor is based – as well as Denmark, Finland and Sweden will be run as a single region. Telia and Telenor already run a shared network in Denmark, covering the whole country.
Olenius said: “In the past few years, the Finnish Shared Network has succeeded well in its original goal of building a high-quality and comprehensive mobile network in eastern and northern Finland that both operators have been able to utilise as they provide services to our customers in these areas. It’s therefore natural to expand this cooperation on the basis of these good results.”
The original shared network (pictured) — Suomen Yhteisverkko — began operations in 2015. The south-west extension will enable it to reach Oulu — whose university is carrying out pioneering work into 6G, the next mobile generation — as well as Kuopio, Kouvola and Kotka.
The two operators have also combined the frequencies granted to them in the shared network’s operating area to enable higher speeds and better service standards.
The shared network will reach 28.5% of the population of the country, but 62.5% of the land area.
