The Director-General’s foreword
In 2009, FICORA's activities were influenced the most by the promotion of the availability of broadband communications connections in Finland, spectrum auction and political choices regarding the future financing of public service television and radio operations.
FICORA designated universal service operators which must provide 1 Mbit/s Internet connections or faster at the user's permanent place of residence or location at a reasonable price in 330 municipalities or part of a municipality. The authority will also be responsible for the handling of applications for public financial aid for broadband in sparsely-populated areas, paying the financial aid and monitoring of the use of the aid.
The authority held Finland's first spectrum auction where 15 licences were sold in the band 2.6 GHz for a period of twenty years. The auction raised roughly 3.8 million euros.
At FICORA's initiative, telecom operators decided to reduce the interconnection fees of text messages in 2010-2011. The authority also required that Itella Oyj change its pricing of universal postal service products.
FICORA specified telecom operators' obligations on ensuring the functionality of communications networks and services in the event of faults and disturbances. The objective was to promote the functionality of communications networks and services and reduce the harmful effects interruptions cause to end-users.
The exploitation of data-stealing malware for attacks against users of Finnish electronic services became more prevalent. According to FICORA's CERT-FI information security review, malware has forwarded user information to third parties in about a couple of thousand cases. In general, Finnish communications networks place among the top most secure ones in the world. The preparatory measures of the new national information security authority NCSA-FI, established at FICORA in early 2010, were taken well in advance.
The 'Lintilä working group' proposed a new financing model for the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE), which created political discussion in 2009. In March 2010, the reform of YLE's governance and financing was, however, postponed to the next term of office for further preparation.
Rauni Hagman
Director-General