Sonera 3G covers 20% of Finnish population — MobileMonday Global: Industry News

^{Falls short of the license terms} Sonera 3G covers 20% of Finnish population

14 Nov 2004 at 04:05 GMT Timo Poropudas

The 3G coverage of TeliaSonera Finland is 20 percent of the inhabitants of the whole country, revealed Pasi Mehtonen, vice president, products and services in his November MobileMonday presentation. This falls far short of the 3G license condition of 35 percent of coverage.

Mehtonen’s coverage numbers contradict with those of Anni Vepsäläinen, CEO of TeliaSonera Finland, who claimed in the October 13 press conference that her company is in compliance of the license terms.

The Finnish telecom regulator is presently pondering what to do with operators that are failing to fulfill the terms of their network construction licenses. Among the operators Sonera is in the best position since it is the only operator with commercial UMTS network.

Sonera put its 3G network into commercial use on 12 October 2004. It operates in 20 locations in the Helsinki metropolitan area, Turku, Tampere and Oulu.

Mehtonen said that about 70 percent of the inhabitants in the Helsinki metropolitan area, Turku, Tampere and Oulu live in the area of Sonera’s UMTS network while the network’s coverage is about 20 percent of the inhabitants of the whole country.

UMTS networks is supported by fast 2.5G EDGE network which covers about 25 percent of the population.

Sonera’s position is that it will build EDGE and UMTS networks according to the demand.

Mehtonen also introduced several phones that take advantage Sonera’s EDGE and UMTS networks. Included were Nokia EDGE phones 3200 and 6220; dual-mode-terminals (GPRS/WCDMA) Nokia 6650, 7600, Sony Ericsson Z1010 and Samsung z107; and the lone multimode-terminal (GPRS/EDGE/WCDMA) Nokia 6630.

At least the Nokia 6630 is available customized for Sonera with Sonera menu key. Sonera offers for corporate users a direct connection to the services selected by the company

Sonera has introduced a 3G data card with an easy-to-use user interface for Sonera’s telework services and functionality that is familiar Sonera Connect customers. The data card utilizes GPRS, UMTS and WLAN network technologies, chooses the fastest available connection automatically.

Mehtonen said that Sonera will bring out a 2G data card that uses the GPRS and WLAN networks by the end of the year.