Nordic cool - how data usage in Finland is driving advanced networks

Covering 99.96% of the country’s population, Digita has leveraged its position as a trusted partner of broadcasters and mobile networks to diversify into IoT and data centre service offerings. TowerXchange spoke to the company’s CEO, Juha-Pekka Weckström, to find out more about this burgeoning market, how Digita has grown with it and where they plan to go as communications infrastructure undergoes revolutionary changes over the next few years.

TowerXchange: Please introduce Digita, your history and your current footprint.

Digita transmits radio and television programmes to everyone living in every corner of Finland every day of the year. Digita’s digital terrestrial television network covers 99.96% of Finnish people. Digita also applies the latest digital technology in order to develop and offer versatile online television and radio services. Digita’s nationwide network forms an important part of local mobile network operators’ networks. In addition, Digita’s service portfolio includes comprehensive IoT services based on the company’s nationwide network, as well as world-class data centre services. Digita’s clients are media houses and mobile and broadband operators as well as a broad range of customers in data centre and IoT services.

In early January 1999 Digita started as a subsidiary of Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle) when the distribution technology unit of Yle was incorporated. In March 2005 Digita was bought by TDF Group and then in October 2012 Digita was bought by the First State European Diversified Infrastructure Fund FCP-SIF, the European Infrastructure fund advised by First State Investments

TowerXchange: Can you tell us a bit about your future plans and goals?

Digita has been broadcasting radio and TV programs reliably to all of Finland for decades and is now providing value added services to broadcasters in form of hybrid television which combines the best of antenna television and internet. Digita develops new solutions for television advertising together with broadcasters  as well as analytic services.

The national transmission and broadcasting network has served the needs of MNOs  for a long time and has now been expanded to the world IoT; Digita’s LoRa network covers 85% of the population and approximately 95% of the companies operating in Finland. Digita´s high masts and two-way LoRa technology enables its users to control different kinds of devices simply and cost-effectively. Digita aims to be one the leading IoT companies in Finland.

Digita is also expanding its data centre business and offers a diverse range of excellent connections to anywhere in the world. FICIX - the Finnish Communication and Internet Exchange provides an Internet Exchange Point (IXP) for IP peering and secures access to the services of all key operators. Digita’s data centres also provide direct connection to Cinia’s international network which uses the C-Lion1 marine cable system from Finland directly to Germany. Digita’s data center services meet the strictest security and availability criteria.

TowerXchange: As an organisation with a primarily broadcast-based background, how do you feel your history has prepared you for the vast changes which will take place in communications infrastructure? 

Consumer demand for video content increases all the time. While portable devices, through fast broadband and mobile networks, are growth drivers in the market, broadcasted content continues to be the most important segment of the market. The changing consumer habits, also in sparsely populated areas, will also affect the development of the market in the future. Television is being watched, in addition to the antenna network, through satellite, cable, broadband and mobile networks, and investments in different networks will increase the competition further. There is need for multiple networks to serve the increasing customer demand.

As a second megatrend, increasing wireless data transfer puts increasing demands on network infrastructure. Digita owns and operates unique tower and data communication infrastructure. The number of networks and customers utilising our infrastructure has increased all the time and we expect an increasing demand for Digita’s infrastructure in the future as well.

TowerXchange: How far is Finland in terms of LTE/5G rollouts? Would you consider the region to be advanced in this? 

Finland has the highest consumption of mobile data in the world per capita. LTE has been widely rolled out and 5G is expected to be rolled out on a  large scale as of 2020.

TowerXchange: Scandinavia and the Nordic region has seen very little towerco or tower M&A activity compared to Southern Europe, why do you think this is? Do you anticipate that this will change in the near future? 

We monitor the market very closely and feel that the market players are revisiting their strategies and see that there might be increasing amount of M&A and towerco activity in the future

TowerXchange: Nordic MNOs are well used to infrastructure sharing through joint ventures; do you feel they are ready to respond well to a growth in independently owned infrastructure? 

We think that the MNOs will welcome increased options in the market place.

TowerXchange: Can you share your vision for how 5G will roll out, and how the role of MNOs and towercos will need to change?

From our perspective this will bring two important aspects. Firstly, capex needs will go up as the number of towers that need to be constructed will increase substantially and secondly, a new small cell ecosystem will be established in the market place. We see that both of these developments might offer options for competitive new offerings.