Historical background of Finnish ICT sector

1855
First telegraph line is opened in Finland between Helsinki, Vyborg and St. Petersburg. The line was built by Siemens.

1876
Finland's first electric supplies retailer, Waden´s Elektriska Affär, later known as Ericsson, introduces its operations in Finland. The very same year professor Bell develops the telephone in Boston.

1877
Telephone is used in Finland for the first time.

1882
Six companies introduce local telephone company operations in Finland. The first telephone company is established in Turku. Each local telephone company acts as monopoly in its region.

1899
Siemens Osakeyhtiö goes into operation.

1917
Finland becomes independent. Finnish Cable Factory, one of the Nokia Company's ancestors, is established.

1927
The Telegraph Office is combined with Finland Post.

1928
The cable between Finland and Sweden is inaugurated. There are 100,000 telephones in Finland, the number of inhabitants being about 3.5 million.

1932
The first automatic telephone exchanges are taken into use in Finland.

1939 - 1945
Finland and the world at war. The Finnish Army is the major employer in the telecommunications sector.

1952
Olympic Games in Helsinki, the capital of Finland. Helsinki Telephone Company builds an Olympic telephone network with four exchanges.

1967
Nokia Corporation is formed through the merger of Nokia Company (the original paper manufacture business) with the Finnish Rubber Works and Finnish Cable Works.

1971
An analog radio phone network ARP, which functions in the frequency of 150 MHz, is taken into use.

1979
The digital age of Finnish telecom begins. The first optical fibre connection is taken into use in Helsinki, the capital of Finland.

1980 - 1987
Finnish telephone operations are opened up broadly for competition, considerably earlier than in the rest of Europe.

1982
EUnet, the first Finnish Internet service provider, is established. The first generation mobile phone network NMT-450 is taken into use.

1986
The NMT-900 mobile phone network is introduced.

Finnish Jarkko Oikarinen develops IRC, Internet Relay Chat. IRC enables real time conversations on the Internet between users all over the web.

1991
Year of "The Digital Big Bang". Finland's Prime Minister Mr Harri Holkeri makes the first GSM call in the world. Finnish Linus Torvalds releases the first version of the operating system Linux.

1992
The second generation digital GSM mobile phone network is taken into use.

1993
The first GSM text message is sent by Finnish engineering student Riku Pihkonen.

1996
Finland Post and Tele of Finland are separated. The number of GSM phones exceeds that of NMT phones.

1999
The convergence in the ICT sector deepens.

2000
FiCom goes into operation.