Northern and eastern Finland received mobile connections that are among the fastest in the world. They also benefit DNA customers visiting ski resorts in Lapland.
Finnish Shared Network Ltd, owned by DNA and Sonera, completed a massive project last autumn, building faster data connections with an improved coverage in northern and eastern Finland. The project improved the speeds of mobile connections, especially in remote regions, more than tenfold.
“World-class 4G services are now also available in rural areas,” says Jarkko Laari, director of radio networks at DNA.
1,700 new base stations
In 18 months, Finnish Shared Network built approximately 1,700 base stations, covering more than 760,000 people in northern and eastern Finland. They also cover Finland's most significant ski resorts. The network uses the latest next generation LTE Advanced 4.5G technology. In addition, the GSM and 3G networks were modernised in the regions.
“DNA and Sonera use the shared mobile network to offer their services to their customers. Thanks to close cooperation between the two operators, the new mobile network was built quickly and cost-effectively. It improves our ability to develop services in the regions, also in the future,” Laari says.
Benefits also at ski resorts
The shared network improves the coverage of voice and mobile broadband services in northern and eastern Finland. The higher network coverage and transfer capacity mean that different mobile apps work better than before.
It also helps travellers to enjoy even better connections. Special attention has been paid to locations that attracted large groups of people during holiday seasons.
“For example, we built an additional capacity for Lapland's ski resorts to guarantee functional high-quality services, also during the busiest winter holiday season,” Laari says.
Reindeer Coop warns motorists
The improved coverage of DNA's connections allows people to use new mobile apps, even in more sparsely populated areas. One of these is the Porokello (Reindeer Coop) project of the ELY Centre of Lapland, in which a thousand professional motorists produce real-time information about reindeer on or close to roads.
Its real-time reindeer warnings are available to satnav systems of almost all vehicles via the V-Traffic service. This traffic information reaches nearly half a million people in Finland. As the project proceeds, it will be possible to receive warnings on mobile phones by using a free app.
The Reindeer Coop software also includes an expansion, which provides DNA with measured information about network coverage from the Reindeer Coop terminals of the professional motorists involved in the project. This information supplements the data collected by DNA's field team.
“This coverage information helps us to develop our services to be even better,” Jarkko Laari says.
