Finland has completely phased out landline telephone service
On June 30, Finland permanently shut down its analog landline telephone network, which had been in operation in the country for nearly 150 years. With this move, the country has fully transitioned to modern digital communication technologies.
Finland’s landline telephone network began operating as early as the 1880s, but, as everywhere else, the digital revolution gradually replaced the old technology based on copper wires.
In this northern country, landline service has almost entirely given way to mobile phones.
Elisa, the last major fixed-line operator to use copper lines, marked the network’s shutdown with a phone call between the company’s CEO, Topi Manner, and the director of the National Communications and Transport Agency, Jarkko Saari-Mäki.
During the call, they reminisced about their experiences with landline phones. Manner recounted how, as a young man living in London in the 1980s, he would call his family once a week at a set time to ensure everyone was home.
They also discussed the future of mobile technology, and at the end, they said goodbye with the informal phrase “kuulemiin,” which means “talk to you later” in Finnish.
When announcing in January its intention to phase out the network—a step its competitors had already taken—Elisa reported that it had only “a few thousand” customers left on landline-only plans, and that it had not offered new such services for many years.
Starting Tuesday, landline services in Finland will be provided only by local operators, according to Euronews.
Earlier, the Finnish government initiated a historic revision of the 1987 Nuclear Energy Act, which until now had strictly prohibited the import and storage of nuclear munitions on the country’s territory.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb stated that the country has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons on its territory during peacetime.
