Home > Statistics > Telecommunications > 2006 > Telecommunications 2006

Telecommunications 2006

Subscriber lines and subscriptions Fixed telephone subscriber lines

For several years now the number of fixed telephone subscriber lines has been declining in Finland. During 2006, the number of subscriber lines contracted further and at the end of the year they totalled slightly over 1.9 million – 36 subscriber lines per 100 population. The figure includes both conventional fixed telephone subscriber lines and ISDN subscriber lines converted to channels. ISDN channels accounted for 24 per cent of all fixed telephone subscriber lines.

Excluding lines to public telephones, 65 per cent of all fixed telephone subscriber lines were in private household or leisure use and the remaining 35 per cent were used for other purposes, such as business and public sector.

During 2006, the number of basic rate ISDN subscriber lines declined by a quarter from the previous year and at the end of the year they numbered approximately 96,000. The number of primary rate ISDN subscriber lines also fell and was just under 9,000 at the end of the year, whereas twelve months earlier they had totalled approximately 9,800. Good ten per cent of the basic rate ISDN subscriber lines were in household use.

At the end of 2006, public telephones maintained by telecommunications operators numbered no more than 1,300.

Broadband subscriptions

At the end of 2006, there were altogether over 1.4 million broadband subscriptions in Finland. The majority, or slightly over 1.2 million, of these were DSL subscriptions, which contains the xDSL connections supplied by telecommunications operators to individual end users (1,141,765) and housing corporations (1,647), as well as shared connections to real estate (68,885). The total figure excludes the broadband connections which housing corporations divide between end users, that is, xDSL subscriptions of housing corporations broken down to the end user level.

In all, 80 per cent of the DSL subscriptions supplied to end users and real estate were used by households while 20 per cent were in business use. Cable modems are mainly used by households. Around 87 per cent of the WLAN subscriptions (total of 4,820) included in the category of other broadband subscriptions were in household use. The majority, or 81 per cent, of the rest of other broadband subscriptions (total of 29,585) were also used by households.

The transmission speed of 29 per cent of the subscriptions was 2 Mbps or higher; 19 per cent had a transmission speed of at least 2 Mbps but under 8 Mbps, and ten per cent of the subscriptions had a transmission speed of 8 Mbps or higher. The figures are only indicative, however, because the breakdown by transmission speed is not quite comprehensive.

Mobile phone subsciptions

In Finland, the number of mobile phone subscriptions exceeded that of fixed line ones as far back as at the end of the 1990s. The number of mobile phone subscriptions has grown yearly and this development continued also in 2006. As the number of fixed telephone lines continued to fall and that of mobile phone subscriptions kept going up, there were three times as many mobile phone subscriptions as fixed line ones at the end of 2006.

At the end of 2006, mobile phone subscriptions totalled nearly 5.7 million, equalling around 108 subscriptions per 100 population. Pre-paid subscriptions accounted for eight per cent of all mobile phone subscriptions. Around 22 per cent of all mobile phone subscriptions were in business use.

Volume of services Volume in fixed telephone networks

As in preceding years, the volume of telecommunications in fixed local networks contracted again from the previous year in 2006. Outgoing calls from local telephone networks numbered slightly under 1.3 billion and call minutes totalled nearly of 5.4 billion. Approximately 35 per cent of the outgoing calls were made from household subscriber lines, which accounted for 60 per cent of all call minutes. The share of the calls made from household subscriber lines has declined in recent years, because in 2004 nearly one-half, or 48 per cent, of the outgoing calls from local telephone networks were made from household subscriber lines (at that time calls made from household subscriber lines accounted for 62 per cent of all call minutes).

Dial-up calls accounted for 16 per cent of all call minutes in 2006.

In 2006, local calls made up 38 per cent, long-distance calls ten per cent, international calls two per cent and calls to mobile networks 27 per cent of the calls made from local telephone networks. Other calls, such as those to business numbers and nationwide service numbers accounted for 23 per cent of the calls.

The distribution of call minutes by type of call was as follows: local calls accounted for 48 per cent, long-distance calls for ten per cent, international calls for three per cent and calls to mobile networks for 17 per cent of all call minutes. Other calls such as those to business numbers accounted for 22 per cent of the call minutes.

Volume in mobile networks

In terms of both numbers and call minutes, the volume of outgoing calls from mobile telephones has grown from one year to the next in Finland. Outgoing calls from mobile phones already exceeded those from local telephone networks, i.e. fixed subscriber lines, as far back as in 2002. Although, on the average, the calls from fixed line subscriptions last longer than those from mobile phones, outgoing call minutes from mobile phones also exceeded those from local telephone networks, i.e. fixed subscriber lines, for the first time in 2005. As regards the total numbers of calls and call minutes it should be noted that these statistics do not cover calls transmitted in IP networks and, consequently, not the total number of calls and call minutes made from all networks either.

In 2006, outgoing calls from mobile phones totalled nearly 4.5 billion and the total number of spoken call minutes was approximately 12.7 billion – 72 per cent of the calls were made from private subscriptions, i.e. subscriptions in domestic use, and 28 per cent from corporate subscriptions (subscriptions in business use), while 71 per cent of the call minutes came from calls made from private subscriptions.

Of the calls made from mobile phones, 83 per cent were to domestic mobile subscriber numbers, 15 per cent to domestic fixed line subscriber numbers and two per cent to international subscriber numbers, either fixed of mobile. The respective distribution of call minutes by direction of call was 84 per cent, 14 per cent and two per cent.

Like the volume of outgoing calls from mobile phones, the numbers of text and multimedia messages also grew in 2006 from the previous year. In 2006, a total of approximately 3.1 billion text messages were sent, averaging 544 messages per subscription, while the respective figures in 2005 were slightly over 2.7 billion and 507 (including service requests in short message format, i.e. special SMS services subject to charge, such as ring tones, screen logos or news updates). The number of sent multimedia messages grew by 35 per cent from 2005 and totalled 21.6 million in 2006.

The total volume of packet-switched data transmission in mobile communications tripled from 2005 and amounted to just under 100,000 Gbps in 2006.

Personnel and finances of telecommunications operators

In 2006, telecommunications operators employed 14,487 persons, on the average, which is 12 per cent fewer than in 2005 when the respective figure was 16,385. The figure has been declining annually since 2001.

The total turnover of telecommunications operators grew by six per cent from the previous year in 2006 and totalled slightly over EUR 4.5 billion. The total turnover from telephone communications in the fixed line network (local, long-distance and international telecommunications) declined, whereas that from mobile communications and ’other activities’ grew from 2005. The turnover generated by data transmission remained roughly on level with the previous year.

In 2006, mobile communications accounted for 50 per cent of the total turnover of telecommunications operators. Most of this came from voice services, for non-voice services only generated 11 per cent of the turnover from mobile communications (i.e. around six per cent of the total turnover). The proportion of the turnover coming from telephone communications in the fixed line network has been diminishing in recent years and amounted to barely 13 per cent in 2006. Telecommunications operators received 17 per cent of their turnover from data transmission, and approximately 35 per cent (i.e. six per cent of total turnover) of this originated from Consumer Internet (i.e. Internet services used by private customers including, among other things, installation, connection and opening charges, monthly fees and data security services). Approximately one-third of the turnover of other telecommunications activities (i.e. close on seven per cent of total turnover) came from sales of telecommunication machines and apparatus.

Telecommunications operators’ investments in tangible assets contracted by around 10 per cent from the previous year in 2006 when they made investments to the total value of EUR 444 million, of which investments in telecommunication networks accounted for 86 per cent. The total value of their investments in telecommunication networks was EUR 380 million, which is five per cent more than in the year before.

Production of and foreign trade in telecommunications equipment

Measured in terms of both number of employees and total value of output, the branch of manufacturing producing telecommunications equipment developed favourably right up to the beginning of the 2000s, but a turning point came in 2001 when the total value of its output declined from the year before. The same trend continued in 2002 and 2003, when the number of persons employed by the branch also fell annually. In 2004 and 2005, the branch experienced positive development again, as both its number of employees and the total value of its output went up from the year before.

Foreign trade in telecommunications equipment continued to grow right up to 2000, but then began to fall annually. In 2005, the value of foreign trade in telecommunications equipment began to go up again and in 2006 it remained roughly on level with 2005. In 2006, imports of telecommunications equipment accounted for 3.5 per cent of all imports and the share of the value of telecommunications exports of the total value of exports was 13.7 per cent.

Source: Telecommunications 2006, Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Mervi Niemi (09) 1734 3263, Kari-Pekka Niemi (09) 1734 3399

Director in charge: Kaija Hovi

---

Updated 5.6.2007