Finland leads from front in mobile telephony

Columnist Ansar Mahmood Bhatti examines the rapid progress by Finland.

Finland’s mobile phone industry in particular and the telecom sector, spearheaded by Sonera, the leading telecom company, in general have made progress in the field of information technology and telecommunications by leaps and bounds. Sonera Telecom is equipped with the state of the art technology and has many services to offer to its customers. The popularity of Nokia phone the world over is a glaring example of Finland’s fame in this field, though most of the people do not know that Nokia belongs to Finland.

The mobile communications business in Finland continued its profitable growth in 2001. The good financial trend was attributable to the growth in Mobile subscription volumes as well as to the increased and more versatile use of mobile phones. Sonera has performed well in mobile communication services, retaining its leading market position despite tougher competition in Finland.

Finland’s mobile phone penetration rate at the end of 2001 already topped 70 per cent. Sonera’s market share of GSM subscriptions at the end of 2001 was more than 70 per cent. Sonera’s share of nationwide net growth in GSM subscriptions was high during the report year.  Sonera m-mail, which was brought out on the market in October 2000, makes it possible to send and receive e-mails with a mobile phone. The service is available to Sonera’s GSM customers via its revamped website. The web site allows the customers to use and manage his or her GSM subscription via the Internet and order new services for the subscription. On the Finnish market, Sonera introduced its Pointer Guide service, the first application utilizing positioning technology. It offers information on services, events and sights to see in the locality — right to the user’s GSM phone. In the Sonera Pointer services, a mobile phone’s location can be pinpointed to an accuracy of one base station i.e one network cell. Positioning accuracy is important for a variety of applications in which with the customer’s permission, the positioning data can be linked to the services the customer wants.

Sonera also launched a solution for making payments with a mobile phone. The service enables customers to call a service number with their mobile phone, after which the product or service is immediately available. The services offered through Sonera Mobile Pay already offer a convenient mode of payment at hundreds of soft drink vending machines, car washes and company canteens.

Sonera and Tammercom Finland Oy have jointly developed Sonera Talanmies a property management package that makes use of GSM technology. The system enables remote control of the building’s functions, such as switching on the sauna by means of a mobile phone. The system also sends out timely alerts — on account of flooding in the home, for example via a text message directly to the user’s mobile phone.

For business use, Sonera launched the mBusiness product family, which offers integrated and customized mobile solutions for enhancing companies operations, greater cost-effectiveness and developing new lines of business. By means of mBusiness solutions, a company can even go over to fully wireless solutions in its business operations.

Sonera has also brought out on the market a GPRS service, based on packet-switched data transfer. GPRS facilitates the use of mobile services requiring data transfer: connecting up to the Internet or Intranet or intranets is faster. In addition, using e-mail, WAP services and a company’s internal electronic services is now more flexible because GPRS enables simultaneous voice and data transfer connections. In 2000 Sonera began building its third generation mobile network in accordance with the licencee granted to it by the Finnish Government in 1999. Sonera is employing an evolutionary approach to building out the network, making use of existing GSM and GPRS networks. Sonera’s UMTS network is operational from January 1, 2002. Sonera’s UMTS capital expenditures in Finland are estimated to be about 500 million Euro over the next ten years, including network investments, service platforms and information systems.

Sonera Info Communications offers directory services accessible from any terminal device any time, anywhere. The company can tap into contact information on private persons, companies and institutions in about 20 different countries. The competence of Sonera Info Communications is its long experience and expertise in the use of online databases and its proven track record as a frontrunner in developing directory services that can be accessed on a mobile phone.

Directory services are one of Finland’s most popular mobile value-added services and Sonera Info Communications is the country’s leading provider of electronic directory and number assistance services. Among the best known services are Sonera Finder, an electronic contact information index, domestic number assistance services and telephone directories. In addition, the company offers the Zed Finder service, the world’s first directory service that operates with WAP and GSM phones.

Pakistan is also opening up to Information Technology. The mobile telephony in Pakistan has progressed rapidly. Now we have four major mobile phone operators. The state-run cell phone company i.e Ufone has recently introduced WAP services but only in a few big cities. The customers of these companies have been demanding for the provision of e-mail facility on mobile phones but nothing has happened so far. The problem with these companies is that their main focus is on increasing their customer-base. They are least bothered about enhancing the network. The ultimate victims are the end users. 

Pakistan Telecommunication Company has though introduced a number of value added vis-a-vis other services, yet a lot more is still needed in order to match the impending challenges posed by the 2002 scenario when PTCL’s monopoly will end. PTCL has however done a lot for the promotion of Information Technology in the country. But a comparative study between the Finland and Pakistan’s telecom sectors shows that Pakistan has to do more in this field. As we all know future belongs to Information Technology, therefore, we will have to focus our all attentions on this very sector.