More and more households have broadband access

The majority of users demand a 1 Mbit/s connection or faster

According to a survey commissioned by the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority (FICORA), 68 per cent of households now have broadband access. In recent years, broadband has spread quickly into Finnish households as 59 per cent of households had broadband access in 2007.
However, there are regional differences in broadband penetration.

Nearly three internet users out of four are of the opinion that a 1 Mbit/s connection, at the least, is sufficient for their demand. In some provinces, as many as over 80 per cent of users estimated that they need a 1 Mbit/s connection or faster.

Finns have also eagerly taken the mobile broadband into use. Eleven per cent of broadband users now have a mobile broadband subscription, whereas the share was only 1 per cent in 2007. Most mobile broadband users have both a fixed and mobile broadband subscription.

According to the survey, only less than a third of households in Finland had a land-line telephone. Instead, nearly everyone in Finland has a mobile telephone subscription.

Similar to 2007, thirteen per cent of Finns have acquired a 3G tie-in sales subscription. However, there is a clear increase from 2007 on the number of 3G handsets acquired by other means than tie-in sales. Sixteen per cent of the users who had acquired a mobile phone by other means than tie-in sales had a 3G phone. Since they had acquired a 3G phone, nearly half of the users said they used the internet and e-mail more than before.

The use of the internet i.e. VoIP phone calls has increased from 21 per cent in 2007 to 24 per cent in 2008 over all internet users.

Suomen Kyselytutkimus Oy interviewed 2000 consumers in the age group of 15 to 79 in mainland Finland during 11 November to 8 December 2008.

Telepalveluiden käyttötutkimus 2008 (survey on the use of telecommunications) and the results by province (in Finnish) are available at www.ficora.fi.

Further information:
Torsti Alhava, Communications Market Specialist, tel. +358 9 6966 461, + 358 50 514 8285
Joonas Orkola, Communications Market Specialist, tel. +358 9 6966 734, +358 40 486 6018