Our take...
The unveiling of the plan comes after the country's largest cable operator Welho announced that it would start offering consumers 110Mbit/s using a new generation of cable technology called DOCSIS 3.0 that enables consumers to connect at speeds of 160Mbit/s downstream (and potentially higher). Meanwhile incumbent telco Teliasonera has stepped up investment in fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) in 2008 to offer 100Mbit/s to consumers, and theoretically up to 1Gbit/s in future. The company's strategy is to deploy FTTP to multi-dwelling buildings in cities; provide copper-based DSL access in lower density areas; and use wireless broadband to connect the most remote homes. The projected coverage is to cover 400,000 homes with its high-speed broadband network by YE 2008/1Q 2009. The incumbent telco also owns the second largest cable network in the country that it plans to upgrade to cope with speeds of 100Mbit/s.

The government fund aims to encourage deployment of next-generation networks (NGANs) such as FTTP and DOCSIS 3.0 beyond the highest-density urban areas where they are typically concentrated. These regions offer the most attractive potential for returning the NGAN investment cost. However, at the same time they potentially risk creating a digital divide between consumers in these dense areas that can access faster speeds and more advanced services in comparison with those living in more remote regions.

Rollout of technologies such as FTTP and DOCSIS 3.0 will need to increase substantially to hit the 2015 target in Finland. According to Screen Digest, at year-end 2007 there were under 30,000 fibre connections capable of delivering the speeds mentioned in the project.

Several European providers have recently announced plans for NGANs (e.g. Virgin Media and BT (UK), Ono (Spain), Liberty Global (Europe-wide)), driven on one hand by speed wars with market competitors and on the other by the prospect of increased user bandwidth demand, pushed by higher numbers of online services offering more and more bandwidth-hungry content (particularly video), and access via a multiplying array of broadband-capable devices.