Valokuitunen Oy
| Date: | 4.8.2026 |
|---|---|
| Country: | Finland |
| Customer: | Valokuitunen Oy |
| Amount in EUR: | EUR 50 million |
| Maturity: | 5 years |
| Business sector: | Project & Structured Finance |
Project
The loan has been provided to Valokuitunen Oy to co-finance the expansion of the fibre-optic network throughout Finland, mainly in suburban areas and outside the centres of the largest cities. Overall, Valokuitunen is present in more than 120 municipalities across Finland.
The project contributes to the EU’s strategic connectivity objective of ensuring gigabit-capable connectivity for households and businesses under the 2030 Digital Compass, and it is supported by the InvestEU programme.
According to the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom, Finland’s FTTH/B coverage stood at 80% in 2025, in line with EU average of 79.4%, but still notably below Nordic peers (88%–98%), despite strong and growing mobile data usage. FTTH/B coverage refers to the proportion of homes and buildings with access to fibre-optic broadband networks.
Traficom’s data also confirms significant gaps in fibre-optic and gigabit network coverage outside urban centres. In rural areas near cities and in sparsely populated regions, around half of households have no high-speed fixed connection at all.
The loan will have an initial final maturity of five years. The total capital investments are estimated to be above EUR 500 million.
Fulfilment of NIB’s mission
Productivity:
The expansion and densification of the fibre-optic network will increase the number of homes and buildings passed (HP) to more than 450,000, and homes and buildings connected (HC) to more than 250,000.
The investments will strengthen broadband access to infrastructure by expanding the coverage of the very high-capacity network by up to 1 Gbit/s.
The project will also support backhaul connections for 5G telecom services, linking local mobile networks to the core fixed network.
Impact indicators related to the loan:
- Additional number of homes connected by 2030
- Additional number of homes passed by 2030
Environment:
No environmental benefits are foreseen.
Sustainability summary
Through pre-planning, Valokuitunen is identifying areas with potential nature or cultural values, and areas with physical climate risks like flooding.
Environmental impacts are considered small, and no environmental permits are needed.
