Sonera Corporation opened its third generation mobile communications network, based on UMTS technology, on January 1, 2002. In line with the licence conditions, Sonera's UMTS network operates in the largest four towns in Finland, i.e. the Helsinki metropolitan area, Oulu, Tampere and Turku. Commercial service provision is scheduled to start when UMTS phones are available to consumers. Until then, the Finnish UMTS network will be in Sonera's own test use. Sonera estimates that the UMTS market in Finland will be launched on a wider scale in 2004 and 2005.
