Corporation (natively ) is a Finnish

telecommunications Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

company founded in 1882. It was called HPY () until July 2000. The mobile operations of Elisa were previously known as

Radiolinja Radiolinja was a Finnish GSM operator founded on September 19, 1988. On March 27, 1991, the world's first GSM phone call was made on Radiolinja's network. The network was opened for commercial use on July 1, 1991. Radiolinja's slogan was ''So tha ...

. Elisa is a telecommunications, ICT and online service company operating mainly in Finland and Estonia. Elisa has over 6.2 million consumer, corporate and public administration organisation subscriptions. Largest shareholders are Finnish national institutions (State Pension Fund, City Councils of

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

and

Vantaa Vantaa (; , ) is a city in Finland. It is located to the north of the capital, Helsinki, in southern Uusimaa. The population of Vantaa is approximately . It is the most populous municipality in Finland. Vantaa is part of the Helsinki Metropoli ...

, Solidium Oy, Föreningen Konstsamfundet). Elisa provides environmentally sustainable services for communication and entertainment, and tools for improving operating methods and productivity of organisations. In Finland Elisa is the market leader in mobile and fixed network subscriptions and in Estonia number two. Cooperation with

Vodafone Vodafone Group Public Limited Company () is a British Multinational company, multinational telecommunications company. Its registered office and global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It predominantly operates Service (economic ...

and

Telenor Telenor ASA ( or ) is a Norwegian majority state-owned multinational telecommunications company headquartered at Fornebu in Bærum, close to Oslo. It is one of the world's largest mobile telecommunications companies with operations worldwi ...

enables globally competitive services. Elisa is listed on Nasdaq Helsinki Large Cap with approximately 185,000 shareholders. In 2018, Elisa's revenue was 1.83 billion euros, and the company employed 4,800 people. New digital services include Elisa Viihde, Elisa Kirja, Elisa Videra, Elisa Automate and Elisa Smart Factory.

History

Elisa was originally established on 31 January 1882 by the electrical engineer as a telephone cooperative called the Helsinki Telephone Association (, ). HPY began serving customers on 6 June 1882 by connecting 56 phone numbers; by 1884 the number of yearly calls surpassed one million. HPY started expanding during the 1920s and 30s by merging with smaller

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned a ...

telephone operators. In 1921, HPY and the over 400 other privately operated telephone cooperatives then existing in Finland formed the ''Puhelinlaitosten liitto'' ("Federation of Telephone Companies") consortium, which was renamed as in 1996. The company reached its current geographical operating field in 1958. HPY's original form of incorporation, a mutual association, was changed to a legal cooperative ("''Helsingin puhelinosuuskunta''") in 1995, listed on the

Helsinki Stock Exchange Nasdaq Helsinki, formerly known as the Helsinki Stock Exchange (, ), is a stock exchange located in Helsinki, Finland. Since 3 September 2003, it has been part of Nasdaq Nordic (previously called ''OMX''). After the OMX merger, it was referred t ...

as ''Helsingin Puhelin Oyj'' in 1997, and then changed again to a joint-stock company under the name ''HPY Holding Oyj''. HPY was eventually demutualised in 2000, and was renamed as ''Elisa Communications Oyj''. ''Elisa Communications Oyj'' left the Finnet consortium in 2001, and would eventually unify all of its offerings under the Elisa branding in 2003–2004. Elisa launched the first commercial GSM service under the Radiolinja brand in 1991 and the world's first commercial UMTS900 network on 8 November 2007. Investment company Novator Partners acquired a 10.4% stake in Elisa in 2005 through a share swap when Elisa bought the smaller operator Saunalahti, which had been mostly owned by Novator. Novator tried to revamp Elisa in December 2007, but was opposed by Finnish institutions such as Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company. In October 2008, during the Icelandic financial crisis, Novator sold its entire stake in Elisa to Varma for 194 million euros (US$266 million), a price of €11.20 per share. On 27 June 2018, Elisa launched the world's first commercial 5G network in the Finnish city of

Tampere Tampere is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Pirkanmaa. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Tampere is approximately , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately . It is the most populous mu ...

and in the Estonian capital of

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

. Elisa had previously founded Elisa Automate, a startup focused on automating network using artificial intelligence. Polystar was merged with it, resulting in Elisa Polystar In March 2020, Elisa acquired a majority of US-based CalcuQuote and in 2021 a share of Italian-based sedApta and later during the year majority share of Belgian-based Tenforce. In April 2022, Elisa acquired Slovak-based FRINX and in August Cardinality Ltd. At the end of 2022, Elisa's 5G network had population coverage of 86% in Finland and 70% in Estonia. In February 2022, Elisa received a EUR 3.9 million grant from the Finnish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment to support its investment in a Distributed Energy Storage (DES) solution based on intelligent management of the backup power of mobile base stations. The aim is to build 150 MWh of storage capacity, making it the largest distributed DES project in Europe. On the evening of 25 December 2024, authorities were informed of disturbances in four telecommunications cables leaving Finland, with two Elisa cables being completely cut.

Logos

File:Elisa logo 2000.svg, (2000-2003) File:Elisa wordmark.svg, (2003-2014) File:Elisa.svg, (2014-)

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1882 establishments in Finland Companies based in Helsinki Telecommunications companies established in 1882 Telecommunications companies of Finland Former cooperatives Internet service providers of Finland Mobile phone companies of Finland Mobile phone companies of Estonia Finnish brands Vodafone Cooperatives in Finland Companies in the OMX Helsinki 25 Companies listed on Nasdaq Helsinki