After becoming a leading infranet company in northern Europe, Eltel is now vying to become a household name across the continent. The New Economy speaks to Hannu Tynkkynen and Fredrik Menander, from Eltel Group Corporation, to discuss infrastructure in its wider geographical context, how the organisation is promoting environmentally sustainable solutions, and what the ‘Eltel way’ means for business.

The New Economy: Well Hannu, if I might start with you: for our viewers out there who are not familiar with the term, what exactly is the infranet?

Hannu Tynkkynen: The infranet means simply, infrastructure networks. Today we have more and more smart devices that are connected in large amounts, and in the future we will talk about the ‘internet of things’.

[W]e need to improve energy efficiency, we need to cut emissions, and we need to increase the share of renewable energy sources

Smart devices also need more intelligent networks, and we’re adding more functionalities to networks like electricity or communications. This is simply the evolution of how the infranet concept is developing.

The New Economy: So why would you say it’s important to approach infrastructure needs holistically?

Hannu Tynkkynen: First of all we have this technology evolution, which has an impact on the architecture. Secondly the geographical focus is moving from local, to national, to international.

Thirdly, our societies are largely dependent on electricity and telecommunications: the lifelines of society, as we have called them.

Then, our customers expect that their partners have multi-technology competencies to implement the networks, provide support to their operations and maintenance needs, and upgrade the networks.

And finally, as their business concepts are changing and developing, they need to leave something out. And they are outsourcing more of these kinds of services to our kinds of companies.

The New Economy: And how important would you say environmental sustainability is in developing the infranet?

Hannu Tynkkynen: It is very important, because we know what is happening with the climate. So we need to improve energy efficiency, we need to cut emissions, and we need to increase the share of renewable energy sources.

In order to make all this happen, we need smart grids. Eltel is very well positioned in this, because of our service portfolio and our huge experience in these networks.

For example, we have implemented 3.5 million metering points in Finland, Sweden and Denmark. We build wind power parks and we connect them to the electricity grid. And then we also implement charging networks for electric vehicles.

The New Economy: You also talk about the Eltel way; what exactly does this mean, and why is it important?

We can pick up the best practices and processes

Hannu Tynkkynen: It is the system, the way that we manage our business. And our ambition is to be a world-class service organisation. The elements are:

Structure, how we are organised.

Then we need to have transparency of our performance, which is based on uniform reporting, meaning that we can benchmark the performance of our 400 teams in the field. We can pick up the best practices and processes.

And finally we can develop and empower our people so that they become more proactive and they can take a larger responsibility of their daily work.

The New Economy: Well Fredrik, over to you now; and power transmission is Eltel’s most significant growth area. What’s powering this growth?

Fredrik Menander: We have a very old network all across Europe which needs to be rebuilt. We also have renewable energy sources; most countries now coming up need to be connected to the grid, which means we also need to reconfigure what the grid looks like. And thirdly there are a lot of interconnections being made across Europe between countries.

The New Economy: Well Africa is of course investing heavily in infrastructure right now, so what experience do you have on this continent?

Fredrik Menander: We have had experience for many years actually, and presently we are operating in seven countries.

Overall it’s been a very positive experience; there’s a lot of risk, but also a lot of opportunities.

I think to be successful you need to mix being an international company, but also a local company – I mean, employing a local workforce, and so on.

The New Economy: Well would you say then that political instability has made it more difficult to set up telecom services? And what unique challenges have you faced?

Fredrik Menander: Africa, you have to understand, is several countries. And we are picky when choosing the countries where we operate. So we’re not operating in the less stable countries. We’re operating in Angola, and in Liberia; but we’re not operating in countries like Zimbabwe or South Sudan. That’s too early.

There’s a benefit to being early into a market, however normally we come in some time after the oil companies and after the boom, who are normally the first ones.

[Our] business is becoming more exciting, and there’s also room for much more innovation

The New Economy: So what are some of the key trends in the electricity and telecommunications sectors in Africa to look out for?

Fredrik Menander: In the power sector there will still be great need for investments. You have natural resource exploration, which is energy intense. There’s also a need for electrification; in some countries less than 10 percent of the population have access to electricity. And thirdly there’s more money available. I think that will continue.

Today the price of energy is extremely high in most countries, related to the burning of diesel. These connections of electrification will help that and reduce the price.

The New Economy: And what trends do you see across Europe?

Fredrik Menander: We see a lot more of these divestments of the grid to financial investors. That is one trend. We will see the difficulty of deciding where and when to connect these renewable energy sources. And we also see that the infrastructure’s getting smarter. So a lot more to come there.

Now our business has been quite stable for tens of years, but now with these changes, business is becoming more exciting, and there’s also room for much more innovation.

The New Economy: Fredrik, Hannu, thank you.

Hannu Tynkkynen, Fredrik Menander: Thank you.