Finnish trade delegation a success, participants say

OTTAWA–The recently-concluded trade delegation to Canada from Finland was a win for both countries, those who travelled here say. The President of Finland Alexander Stubb met with Prime Minister Mark Carney and introduced Finnish businesspeople to their Canadian counterparts in mid-April. One of the participants was Andrei Nahkala, vice president of public affairs for Finland’s incumbent telecom Elisa Industriq Corp. He used the visit as an opportunity to solidify work with existing Canadian clients and to attempt to drum up new business. “We were able to utilize the visit to Canada in terms of making new introductions to new potential customers,” he told The Wire Report in an interview. “I can’t of course mention the customers by name but we found it useful and worthwhile visiting.” Currently Elisa’s Polystar division has contracts with Telesat Corp., BCE Inc., Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron, and Eastlink. Elisa was created two years after the invention of the telephone, more than 140 years ago. It operates as the incumbent in its home country and as a competitor in Estonia, where it is the second largest carrier. Its Polystar division handles software services. Elisa has a workforce of 6,200 people in 35 nations. Last year revenues were €2.3 billion (about $3.68 billion Canadian). Polystar is the fastest growing division of the Nordic telecom. It provides data services which improve the networks and reduce the number of outage incidents. It uses artificial intelligence (AI) for network diagnostics. “ data analytics and helping the companies to use the data to improve their service and customer experience,” Nahkala said. “It’s helping them to optimize their network.” Elisa expects to migrate to 6G technology in two years, he added. The company has a lot to learn from its Canadian counterparts as Finland and Canada have much in common. Both are sparsely populated with rugged terrain and weather conditions that often cause problems for telecom service providers. Elisa has roughly 2.8 million customers in a country of 5.5 million residents. When the delegation was in Ottawa, a statement was put out by Stubb and Carney (Nepean, Ont.). It made note of a memorandum of understanding signed between Finnish equipment manufacturer Nokia Corp. and Export Development Canada to underwrite Nokia’s efforts to build AI Gigafactories. The gigafactories will use massive computing power to develop, train and deploy advanced AI models and applications. “We will also continue to cooperate on research and development in network communication technologies that will underpin sovereign AI infrastructure,” the elected officials said. “This includes promoting growth opportunities to our telecommunications industries through multilateral initiatives such as the Global Coalition on Telecommunications (GCOT).” ppark@thewirereport.ca

Finnish trade delegation a success, participants say

Telecom |
By Paul Park
|April 27, 2026

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Finnish trade delegation a success, participants say

Telecom | By Paul Park |April 27, 2026

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Telecom |
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|April 27, 2026