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| Industry | Cellular Service Provider |
|---|---|
| Founded | September 19, 1988; 37 years ago (1988-09-19) |
| Fate | Acquired byElisa |
| Headquarters |
Radiolinja was a FinnishGSM operator founded on September 19, 1988. On March 27, 1991, the world's firstGSM phone call was made on Radiolinja's network.[1][2] The network was opened for commercial use on July 1, 1991.
Radiolinja's slogan wasSo that Finns could talk more; it became famous through an advertising campaign.
When Radiolinja launched, Finland's incumbent mobile operator, Telecom Finland (later changed to Sonera, now part of Sweden'sTeliaSonera) was already operating a first generation mobile network on theNMT technology. Thus, Radiolinja's launch was also the start of mobile telecom competition in Europe. Several global firsts happened on the Radiolinja network, including the world's first person-to-personSMS text message, sent in 1993; the world's first fixed-mobile service bundle, launched in 1996; and the world's first paid downloadablemobile content, aringtone, in 1998.
Radiolinja's original investors included the Finnet Group, a consortium composed of a number of Finnish corporations and local telephone companies. In the mid-1990s, Elisa (known then as Helsinki Telephone Ltd) began acquiring a greater stake in Radiolinja, ultimately leading to the mergers of Radiolinja, Radiolinja Origo, and Elisa. At this point, Elisa had also acquired some of Radiolinja's other major stakeholders, such as Soon Communications (previously Tampere Telephone Plc and before that Tampere Telephone Cooperative).
Currently the company is known asElisa.