High-speed mobile connectivity comprehensively available in cities and rural areas

In Finland, 5G networks have been built at a rapid pace since the beginning of the decade. The majority of households are already located inside a high-speed 5G network area. At the end of June 2024, a high-speed 5G network was available for 91% of Finnish households. However, only 16% of the land area was covered by the network. Correspondingly, for the high-speed 4G network, availability was 96% of households and 26% of the land area. “A high-speed network refers to a network that can reach a download speed of at least 100 megabytes under ideal conditions. Such networks are primarily built around population centres, because there is the most use there and thus also the need for additional capacity,” states Senior Specialist Joonas Sotaniemi.

High-speed mobile networks are built especially in population centres

High-speed mobile networks are available in large population centres and their surrounding areas. However, the differences between urban and rural areas remain considerable. 75% of Finns live in urban areas and the situation with mobile networks is good in these areas: almost all households are covered by fast network availability.

In rural areas, there is a lack of a fast mobile network both in populated areas and in their vicinity. The coverage of mobile networks is the weakest in sparsely populated rural areas: only 39% of households are in the high-speed 5G network area, on the other hand, a high-speed 4G network is available for 64% of households. So there are about 50,000 households in sparsely populated rural areas that are outside the high-speed mobile network.

Mobile data to be transferred to 5G networks

In Finland, a lot of mobile data has been consumed when compared internationally, i.e. internet has been used more over mobile networks than in other countries relative to fixed network use. There have been several reasons behind this, from Finland's advanced mobile networks to relatively inexpensive subscriptions with unlimited use. 

The growth rate of mobile data transmission seems to have reached its peak in Finland. In the spring of this year, mobile data transmission grew by only 5% compared to the spring of 2023, while in the spring of 2020 it grew by 29% compared to the previous year. Thus, the use of data transfer continues to grow, but not at the same rate as in previous years. These figures include the data transfer use of smartphone and mobile broadband subscriptions. Mobile broadband subscriptions include, for example, subscriptions for 4G/5G modems and subscriptions for tablets and computers, but do not include subscriptions for sale to homes, such as fixed broadband subscriptions and subscriptions with a quality promise.

More and more mobile data is being transferred to 5G networks as networks expand and 5G subscriptions and devices become more common. Three years ago, only about 5% of all data transmissions were carried over 5G networks. In the spring of 2024, 24% of all data transmission for smartphone subscriptions and mobile broadband subscriptions took place over 5G networks. The amount of data transmission on the 5G network had increased by 54% during the past spring compared to the spring one year earlier. Compared to Sweden, for example, 5G networks have built up rapidly in Finland. In Sweden, a faster 5G network was available for 64% of households and 7% of mobile data transmission was carried over 5G networks in 2023.