Elisa CEO Topi Manner said the quarter marked the beginning of the company’s large-scale data center connectivity business
In sum – what to know:
First deals – Elisa signed its first large-scale data center connectivity contracts, targeting newly built facilities above 100 MW and marking the start of a new infrastructure business segment.
Fiber focus – The operator is concentrating on fiber links and, where needed, optical solutions, positioning connectivity as its primary role in Finland’s growing data center market.
Long-term upside – Management expects attractive returns, strong cash-flow characteristics and a notable positive EPS contribution as data center connectivity projects mature.
As Finland’s data center market continues to grow, telecom operator Elisa is positioning fiber connectivity as a new long-term growth opportunity, signing its first large-scale data center connectivity agreements, and expanding its role in supporting new digital infrastructure developments.
Speaking during the carrier’s second-quarter earnings call, CEO Topi Manner said the quarter marked the beginning of the company’s large-scale data center connectivity business, describing it as a new category within Elisa’s broader fiber strategy.
“During the quarter, we signed the first large-scale data center connectivity deals,” Manner said. “When we talk about large-scale data centers, we talk about newly constructed above 100-megawatt data centers.”
According to Manner, Finland’s data center sector continues to gain momentum as more projects move forward, although the ultimate scale of future investment will depend on factors including hyperscaler spending, electricity availability, power costs, and regulatory conditions. “Overall, in Finland, the data center market is growing. We see more and more projects materializing,” he said.
The executive highlighted several factors that continue to attract data center developers to Finland, including the country’s cool climate, stable geology, reliable electricity grid, competitive power prices, and advanced telecommunications infrastructure. “It is very clear that Finland is an attractive place for data center operators,” Manner said.
Elisa believes it is well positioned to benefit from this trend through its extensive fiber and backbone network assets. Manner noted that the company operates what he described as “the strongest and widest backbone network” and emphasized the importance of timely fiber deployment for data center customers.
The company views the opportunity as a long-term business with attractive financial characteristics. “Based on the deals that we have now signed and based on the deals that we are now in discussions of, we see attractive capital returns and importantly, we see attractive cash flow characteristics,” Manner said.
The company also identified data center connectivity as an emerging source of support for future telecom service revenue growth. In discussing Elisa’s outlook, Manner said that while mobile service revenue recovery is expected to take time, the new connectivity business represents an additional growth driver.
Elisa has recently said artificial intelligence has already delivered measurable operational gains across its network, reducing customer-impacting incidents by more than 80% while supporting its broader strategy to monetize 5G through premium connectivity and enterprise services.
In an interview with RCR Wireless News, Sami Komulainen, Elisa’s chief operating officer and executive vice president for technology and operations, outlined how the operator is combining AI-driven network automation with commercial services such as 5G Standalone (5G SA), network slicing, fixed wireless access (FWA), private mobile networks, and IoT.
According to Komulainen, Elisa has spent more than a decade automating its network and is now extending those capabilities with AI. “We have laid a strong foundation by automating our network for more than a decade, and the impact has been measurable: AI-driven automation has reduced customer-impacting network incidents by more than 80% and pushed preventive actions to 99%, while improving operational efficiency and perceived network quality,” he said.
