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Subscriber lines and subscriptions

The stock of telecommunication subscriptions and the forms of communication have changed in Finland over a relatively short period of time. In the past five years the already high mobile phone subscription density has continued growing – lately largely on account of the proliferation of mobile broadband. The number of broadband subscriptions has grown annually and the use of services in the fixed network has decreased gradually as also subscription numbers have been falling. The year 2008, for its part, strengthened this development.

Fixed telephone subscriber lines

The total number of fixed telephone network subscriptions, which includes conventional telephone subscriptions and ISDN channels, has decreased every year since the early 2000s. At the end of 2008 fixed telephone subscriptions totalled close on 1.7 million, equalling 31 subscriptions per 100 population. The number of subscriptions fell by a good 5 per cent from the end of the previous year. Some 59 per cent of subscriptions were used by private households and the remaining 41 per cent were used by others, such as businesses or the public sector.

The number of ISDN subscriber lines continued to fall in 2008, as it has done in recent years. At the end of the year the number of basic rate subscriber lines was some 74,800 and that of primary rate subscriber lines was some 8,300. At the highest – in the early years of the 2000s – the number of basic rate subscriber lines was reported at slightly over 200,000 and that of primary rate subscriber lines at over 10,000. At the end of 2008 some 8 per cent of the basic rate ISDN subscriber lines were in household use.

Broadband subscriptions

At the end of 2008, the number of broadband subscriptions in Finland totalled nearly 2.1 million, which is one-fifth higher than at the end of 2007.

The majority of these subscriptions were DSL subscriptions, which include the xDSL connections supplied by telecommunications operators to individual end users (over 1.2 million) and housing corporations as well as shared connections to real estate which the telecommunications operators divide to end users (some 124,000 in total). These data do not include xDSL subscriptions of housing corporations broken down to the end user level. The number of DSL subscriptions to end users decreased by some 3 per cent from the year before. By contrast, the number of shared connections to real estate, as well as that of e.g. cable modems, increased from 2007. The number of mobile broadband subscriptions grew 3.5-fold in the year, and stood at nearly 490,000 at the end of the year.

All in all roughly three-fourths of broadband subscriptions were reported as being in private household use. Seventy-eight per cent of the DSL subscriptions delivered to end users, 69 per cent of the shared connections to real estate, the majority (97 per cent) of cable modems and 63 per cent of mobile broadband subscriptions were in private household use. Approximately three-fourths of the remaining other broadband subscriptions were in private household use.

The transmission speed of 41 per cent of all broadband subscriptions was 2 Mbps or higher; 35 per cent had a transmission speed of at least 2 Mbps but under 10 Mbps, some six per cent of the subscriptions had a transmission speed of at least 10 Mbps but under 100 Mbps and just under one per cent had a transmission speed of at least 100 Mbps. As the majority of broadband subscriber lines are in private household use, the distribution of subscriptions in private household use by transmission speed follows that presented above. As regards business subscriptions, the shares of the subscriptions with the fastest transmission speeds were slightly smaller.

In 2008 the most common transmission speed continued to be 1 Mbps.

As increasingly efficient data transmission connections are used, the number of dial-up subscriptions has fallen year by year. At the end of 2008 the number of dial-up subscriptions reported by telecommunications operators was only 30,000, of which 13,000 were in business use.

Mobile network subscriptions

At the end of 2008, the number of mobile network subscriptions was 6.9 million, which equals 130 subscriptions per 100 population. The number of subscriptions increased in the year, by 14 per cent from the end of 2007. This increase was affected in particular by the increase of mobile broadband subscriptions from the year before.

Pre-paid subscriptions accounted for some 11 per cent of all mobile network subscriptions, while in 2007 their share was 9 per cent. In 2008 approximately 24 per cent of all mobile network subscriptions were in business use.

Source: Telecommunications 2008, Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Mervi Niemi (09) 1734 3263, Kari-Pekka Niemi (09) 1734 3399, tiede.teknologia@stat.fi

Director in charge: Leena Storgårds

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Updated 9.6.2009