Timeline of telephony in Finland

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This is a timeline of telephony in Finland.

Big picture

Time period Development summary
1910s The First World War devastates large parts of Europe. Russia fears a German attack via Finland and improves telecommunications for defense purposes with Helsinki and Tallinn. The revolution in Russia in November 1917 has dramatic consequences for Finland, which declares independence in December 1917.[1]
1930s Private telephone companies start being covered by statistics.[2]
1970s The Nordic mobile telephony (NMT) standard is developed by the Finland’s state-owned Post, Telegraph and Telephone (PTT), in collaboration with the Swedish, Norwegian and Danish PTTs. Finland would become the first country worldwide to launch a digital network for mobile communications.[3]
1980s Finland has more mobile telephones per capita than any place else in the world between 1980 and 1985.[4] The capacities of the NMT networks would grow rapidly in the decade.[2] in the mid-1980s, well before its European neighbours, Finland starts deregulating its telecom sector, which would result in a decentralised system of national and foreign - owned telecom operators. An environment of increased competition would provide continuous incentives for upgrading different components of the telecom network and for introducing a variety of technological solutions and innovations among firms participating in the mobile telephony cluster.[3]
1990s The world’s first Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) is launched as the successor of the NMT. It would subsequently also become the European standard for mobile telecommunications. As a result, Nokia and other Nordic telecom equipment suppliers would benefit from first mover advantages in the mobile telecom industry worldwide.[3] The number of landline telephones reaches its highest in Finnish households in the first half of the decade. After the peak, the number of households with no landline phone would grow rapidly, as a consequence of young people establishing their own households and deciding not to get a landline connection.[2]

Visual data

Volume of telephone calls made in Finland from 2007 to 2016, by type of connection (in millions).
Proportion of telephone calls made in Finland from 2007 to 2016, by type of connection (in millions).

Full timeline

Year Event type Details
1877 (end of year) The first telephone line is erected in Helsinki towards the end of the year; 18 months after the telephone was patented in the United States.[2]
1882 An early telephone company is founded in Helsinki.[2]
1894 A private company for long distance telephone traffic is created in Finland, linking local networks among the cities, towns and villages. The Telegraph Office would take no part in the telephone expansion, which remains fully in the hands of national non-state Finnish interests.[1]
1905 Policy Telephone lines for local cross border traffic between Tornio in Finland and Haparanda in Sweden are permitted after clandestine lines are revealed.[1]
1918 (February) Carl Gustaf Mannerheim, the Finnish commander-in chief, declares the telegraph service to be a Finnish department. The Telegraph Administration takes over the telegraph system and the telephone line to Saint Petersburg and some military long lines to coastal areas. This forms the embryo of a state operated long-distance telephone service.[1]
1919 A telephone service opens via sea cable from Helsinki to Tallinn in Estonia.[1]
1924 The Statistical Yearbook of Finland starts being published, providing data on the activities of the State telegraph and telephone companies.[2]
1932 The Finnish Yearbook starts publishing data describing the activities of private telephone companies. Private telephony activity is found to be many times more extensive than that of the State. State telephone companies have 227 exchanges whereas private telephone companies have as many as 1,998 of them. Likewise, in the same year the State has 1,763 "subscriber apparatuses" whereas private telephone companies had 133,456.[2]
1939 – 1945 A total of 815 local telephone companies have been set up in Finland by the Second World War.[2]
1971 The Autoradiopuhelin (ARP) is introduced is the first commercially operated public mobile phone network in Finland.[4]
1980 There are almost twice as many telephones per 100 population in Helsinki as in the rest of the country.[2]
1982 The automatic NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephone) 450 network first appears in the statistics, with 2,648 subscriptions.[2]
1987 The NMT 900 network first appears in the statistics, with 2,038 subscriptions.[2]
1987 Policy The Adoption of the Telecommunications Act is enacted, with the purpose of dissociating commercial telecom operations and regulatory functions, and liberalizing the terminal equipment industry. Administration of the telecommunications sector is transferred from the Transport Executive in the department of Economic Affairs to the Ministry of Transport and Communications.[3]
1988 Policy The New Radio Act is adopted, allowing for competition in corporate networks and data transmission to be partially liberaliszed.[3]
1990 Data concerning mobile phones ie added to the Finnish Statistical Yearbook, concurrently with data on transmissions networks.[2]
1990 The import of telecom equipment and parts represents 0.8% of Finnish GDP.[3]
1990 Policy The special rights of the Finnish National Board of Post and Tel ecommunications are abolished, allowing for the introduction of free competition in data and GSM networks.[3]
1990 – 1991 Licenses to regional radio-telecommunications networks are granted. Free competition becomes allowed among corporate networks.[3]
1991 The world’s first Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) is launched in Finland as the successor of the Nordic Mobile Telephone, and subsequently also becomes the European standard for mobile telecommunications. As a result, Nokia and other Nordic telecom equipment suppliers would benefit from first mover advantages in the mobile telecom industry worldwide.[3][5]
1991 Local company Radiolija develops early (2G) miniaturized mobile telephones.[6]
1992 Switched data transmission is exempted from licences. Competitive licenses to long-distance and local telecommunications are granted.[3]
1993 94 per cent of all households in Finland have at least one landline telephone.[2]
1994 Policy Local and international telecommunications are subject to free competition.[3]
1994 Telecom Finland is corporatized.[7]
1995 Finland joins the European Union and its Single Market. This would imply a full removal of trade and investment barriers and a substantial increase of trade volumes with other EU member states. Trade in intermediate and finished telecom equipment would be particularly facilitated between Finland and its EU trading partners thanks to the harmonisation of essential product regulations and specifications plus the introduction of the EU Suppliers’ Declaration of Conformity for telecom and electrical equipment and parts among EU countries.[3]
1995 Policy Competing licenses to distributed control system networks are granted.[3]
1996 Policy The Telecommunications Act is amended.[3]
1997 The Telecommunications Market Act is adopted, and the Telecommunications Act is repealed.[3]
1998 Telecom Finland is renamed Sonera.[7]
1999 (July) More Finnish households already have a mobile phone than a landline telephone.[2]
2000 The Finnish telecommunications industry as a whole employs some 83,000 people in over 4000 firms, representing 6.9% of the GDP.[3]
2003 Manufacturing of telecom equipment represents 90% of total ICT manufacturing value-added in Finland.[3]
2000 The Finnish telecommunications industry represents 8.4% of the GDP, up from 6.9% in 2000.[3]
2002 (December) Telia merges with Sonera.[7]
2006 The import of telecom equipment and parts represents over 3% of Finnish GDP. In absolute terms, in Finland, imports of telecom equipment and parts has actually almost been multiplied by ten since 1990.[3]
2007 (August) About 41% of Finnish households still have a landline telephone while 97% have at least one mobile phone.[2]

Meta information on the timeline

How the timeline was built

The initial version of the timeline was written by User:Sebastian.

Funding information for this timeline is available.

What the timeline is still missing

Visual data Visual data [1] [2] [3] book book

Timeline update strategy

See also

External links

References