Elisa has acquired the shares in Napapiirin Kuituverkot Oy
Elisa is making its fibre-optic network available to an increasing number of customers by acquiring Napapiirin Kuituverkot Oy, which operates in Lapland, and its fibre-optic business. At this stage, the change does not require any action on the part of customers.
Napapiirin Kuituverkot Oy is owned by Neve Oy and Koillis-Lapin Sähkö Oy. Napapiirin Kuituverkot has fibre-optic customers in Rovaniemi, Kemijärvi, Pelkosenniemi, Savukoski, Salla, Kolari, Pello, Enontekiö and Tervola. Elisa will henceforth be responsible for the maintenance and development of these fibre-optic networks, as well as for the associated customer relationships and services. Fibre-optic broadband services will continue as normal for Napapiirin Kuituverkot’s customers even after the transaction.
In recent years, Elisa has invested heavily in the development of 4G and 5G mobile networks and backbone connections in Lapland. As a result of the transaction, Elisa’s fibre-optic network will expand into new areas in Lapland. In total, Elisa’s fibre-optic network is available to around one million households and business premises in Finland.
– Napapiirin Kuituverkot will remain under Finnish ownership and will become part of Elisa’s most comprehensive fibre-optic network in Finland. We want to invest in Northern Finland; we can now make Elisa’s fibre-optic network available to even more residents and businesses in Lapland, and also expand the network into new areas if there is sufficient demand. We see this acquisition as an important step, particularly in improving services for Rovaniemi’s growing population. “In Northern Finland, the acquisition will support our increasingly regional operating model, in which we combine a national scale with a local presence for the benefit of our customers,” says Henri Korpi, Head of Consumer Customers at Elisa.
Like Neve, Elisa has extensive experience in developing Finnish connectivity and ensuring the reliability of critical infrastructure.
– Neve has been developing the Lapland fibre-optic network for ten years now and has brought high-speed connections to many villages, for example – we are proud of this work. As our customers’ needs have grown, we wanted to ensure a successor for the business that is capable of developing it for the long term and offering an even wider range of services. It was important to us that ownership remains in Finnish hands and that telecoms connections are reliably maintained, even in a changing global situation,” says Kristian Gullsten, CEO of Neve.
