DNA’s last landline telephone exchange shut down in Lahti: Over 140 years of copper network history at DNA comes to an end

A faint click is heard under the finger of DNA’s CEO, Jussi Tolvanen, and the power is switched off for the last time at the telephone exchange on Harjukatu in Lahti. The hum of the equipment fades, and the blinking LED lights go dark. In all its quiet simplicity, the moment can nonetheless be considered highly historical.

“The last one turns off the lights,” Tolvanen remarked with a laugh.

The Lahti Mutual Telephone Association was founded in 1906, and from the following year onward, landline telephone operations began in a facility located at the intersection of Harjukatu and Rauhankatu. Over time, and through various stages, the association evolved into Päijät-Hämeen Puhelin. In 2007, the company was merged with DNA, which at the time operated as a mobile operator, together with five other regional telephone companies. In addition to Päijät-Häme, these were the telephone companies of Oulu, Western Finland, Kuopio, Satakunta, and Lohja. This merger formed the basis of today’s DNA Group.

Although landline operations were carried out on Harjukatu for an impressive 119 years, DNA’s landline history stretches even further back. The telephone operations of the historical predecessors, Lahti, Oulu, Pori, Kuopio, Lohja, and Western Finland Telephone Companies, began between 1882 and 1906. In total, the landline era spanned up to 144 years.

Copper networks were the forefathers of today’s data society

Lahti’s new office building on Harjukatu was completed in 1920, followed by a new exchange building in 1954. The premises were significantly expanded in 1964. Data traffic was introduced alongside voice in the copper network already in 1969, when Kesko’s data transmission devices were connected to the Lahti telephone network. Fiber-optic technology was first tested in Finland in the late 1970s, and construction of Lahti’s first fiber cable network began in the early 1980s. The facilities continue to serve as DNA’s data center, even though landline operations have now ended permanently.

DNA announced in 2021 that its copper networks would be replaced with modern cable, fiber, and mobile solutions. The work began in late 2021 in Raisio, and the final copper-based services were discontinued for Lahti’s business customers at the end of 2025. This enabled the shutdown of the last telephone exchange in January 2026 after a short transition period.

In recent years, the copper network has mainly been used to maintain landline telephone connections and legacy broadband technologies (xDSL). With this technology, data speeds reached at best only a few dozen megabits. The copper network should therefore not be confused with modern cable or fiber networks, which enable gigabit-level connections and into which DNA will continue to invest significantly.

“Although there were very few copper customers left when the dismantling project began in 2021, we discovered during the project that copper connections in Finland have been used quite creatively over the decades. For example, the control system for the church bells in one municipality operated via a landline connection. Fortunately, we were able to replace it easily with a modern solution. You could say it was a kind of 20th‑century IoT solution,” Tolvanen says with a twinkle in his eye.

As the copper network is phased out, the equipment that is no longer needed will be recycled as electronic waste. The role of copper as the backbone of the data society has now shifted to mobile, cable, and fiber networks.

Further information for media:

DNA Communications, tel. +358 (0)44 044 8000, communications@dna.fi