Back in 2020, I wrote about Finland’s plans to replace its long-established TETRA-based Virve public safety network with a new broadband service based on 4G and 5G. I followed this with an update in 2021, when Virve 2.0 was still largely a development programme and the expectation was that the existing and new networks would operate side by side during the migration.
Several years later, Virve 2, as it is now generally called, has moved from planning, procurement and testing into nationwide deployment.
Erillisverkot confirmed in its 2025 annual report that the Virve 2 service had been completed and that its key services were operational throughout Finland and Åland. The complete service consists of four main components: the Virve 2 connection service, Group Voice Service, Group Video Service and Terminal Device Service. All the key services have received approval for operational deployment under Finland’s legislation governing the government security network.
The underlying model brings together several partners. Erillisverkot remains responsible for the overall service and operates the core network. Ericsson supplies the cloud-native dual-mode 5G Core and associated mission-critical network systems, while Elisa provides the nationwide 4G and 5G radio access network. Airbus supplies the group communications applications that connect broadband users with users on the existing TETRA network, while Senop Communications supports the terminal device and accessory ecosystem.
Rather than constructing an entirely separate national radio network, Virve 2 uses Elisa’s commercial 4G and 5G infrastructure, which has been expanded and hardened to meet public safety requirements. New base station sites have been added, battery backup has been strengthened at selected locations, and mobile base stations and capacity management can be used during major incidents and public events.
Public safety traffic is given priority and pre-emption rights. During congestion, resources can be reassigned from ordinary consumer traffic so that critical voice, video and data communications continue to get through. As one of the explanations in Ericsson’s case study puts it, Virve 2 users travel on the same highway as consumer users but have the ability to move through the traffic when required.
The migration is deliberately not being treated as a sudden replacement of TETRA.
The existing Virve TETRA network will continue alongside Virve 2 until the end of 2028. This allows public safety organisations to introduce new devices and applications gradually while continuing to use established talk groups, operational procedures and control-room systems. All users are expected to have migrated to Virve 2 by the end of 2028.
This hybrid approach was one of the main themes of a presentation by Jaakko Tolppanen of Airbus and Jarmo Vinkvist of Erillisverkot at Critical Communications World 2026. The presentation described Finland’s journey as a nationwide migration from TETRA to MCX, rather than simply a radio network upgrade.
Airbus Agnet provides the bridge between the two environments. It enables communication between MCX and TETRA users, as well as between different systems, while preserving familiar operational practices for people in the field. A firefighter, police officer or paramedic should not need to understand which access technology another user is connected through before making a group call.
The objective is therefore not merely to introduce broadband services. Virve 2 must first remain “as good as” TETRA in critical areas such as service availability, predictable push-to-talk performance, group communications, device reliability and ease of operation.
This is particularly important for professional devices. Consumer smartphones may provide excellent applications and connectivity, but mission-critical communications introduce much stricter requirements. Audio must work immediately and consistently, push-to-talk latency must be predictable, and the device must always use the correct microphone and audio route. Unexpected switching between Bluetooth, a wired accessory, the device speaker or another audio interface is more than an inconvenience. During an emergency, it can become an operational risk.
Professional devices must also provide suitable physical buttons, rugged construction, adequate battery life, readable screens, reliable audio performance and support for specialist accessories. Virve 2 devices may resemble smartphones, but they are designed for demanding public safety environments and include features such as dedicated push-to-talk controls, reinforced connectors and resistance to water, dust and physical impact.
The Group Voice Service is already in production and is interoperable with existing Virve TETRA terminals. Users can continue to work with familiar group numbering and group selection arrangements. The service supports group calls, individual calls, emergency calls, positioning and group scanning.
The Group Video Service adds live video, images, audio and location sharing. It can be used with vehicles and drones to provide control rooms with an immediate view of an incident, helping them assess its seriousness and allocate the correct resources before additional personnel arrive.
The broadband platform also creates opportunities for body-worn cameras, wearables, sensors, unmanned aerial vehicles, robots, analytics, artificial intelligence and augmented reality. Paramedics could establish a video link with hospital staff while transporting a patient, while firefighters could use cameras, positioning information and sensor data to improve situational awareness inside a building.
Coverage remains one of the most important and difficult parts of the migration.
Different published figures describe coverage using different definitions and signal thresholds. Erillisverkot reported in July 2025 that the Virve 2 service area covered approximately 95 per cent of Finland’s land area, while Ericsson describes 97 per cent geographical coverage. The CCW 2026 presentation also discussed a mission-critical data requirement of -110 dBm across more than 97 per cent of the territory and a -120 dBm threshold for mission-critical voice.
The more important lesson is that a single coverage percentage does not provide enough information for critical communications. Commercial coverage maps are too general, and network performance must be measured using real Virve 2 devices in the locations where users actually operate.
Erillisverkot has therefore developed the Virve 2 Tutka, or Radar, application to measure signal strength and service quality and to identify potential coverage gaps. Field testing also needs to include indoor locations, remote areas and operational environments such as tunnels, forests, coastal regions and transport infrastructure.
The CCW presentation suggested that radio conditions are excellent for around 99 per cent of normal situations. The difficult one per cent, involving congestion, weak coverage or interference, is where public safety networks are truly tested.
Mass events provide a good example. A stadium concert can place the mobile network under pressure because thousands of consumers are uploading photos and videos simultaneously. A major accident in the countryside presents the opposite problem, with fewer users but limited radio coverage and capacity.
Erillisverkot highlighted Finland’s World Rally Championship events as a particularly demanding scenario. More than 200,000 people can be distributed across a large forested area served by maximum-coverage cells with limited capacity. Conditions of this kind cannot be reproduced completely in a laboratory. They need to be verified through real-world exercises and operational deployments.
Adoption is now beginning to accelerate. By the end of 2025, the number of Virve 2 broadband subscriptions was already equivalent to around one fifth of the number of traditional Virve subscriptions. Approximately half of those broadband users were using the Group Voice Service and communicating through the same groups as existing TETRA users. The remaining users were primarily using critical data applications provided by Erillisverkot or their own organisations.
Terminal availability and compatibility have slowed deployment, but new rugged devices are expected to remove some of these barriers. Erillisverkot reported almost 60,000 Virve subscriptions at the end of 2025 and expects organisations to move increasingly towards Virve 2 during the remaining migration period.
Finland’s experience demonstrates that migrating public safety communications to 4G and 5G is not simply a matter of deploying an MCX application over a mobile network. It requires changes to the core network, radio coverage, priority mechanisms, devices, accessories, applications, control rooms, operational procedures and user training.
Most importantly, the transition must take place without taking away anything that users already trust.
In my view, this is what makes Virve 2 particularly interesting. Finland is not attempting a big-bang replacement of TETRA or treating 5G as an objective in itself. It is using a carefully controlled hybrid period to preserve reliable group voice communications while gradually introducing video, data, positioning, sensors and other broadband capabilities.
The technology may be changing from TETRA to MCX over 4G and 5G, but the real measure of success will remain the same: when an emergency occurs, the communication must work instantly, reliably and without the user having to think about the network underneath.
Related Posts:
- The 3G4G Blog: From Voice-Centric to Data-Driven Critical Communications
- Connectivity Technology Blog: SWEN Brings 5G to Sweden’s Emergency Communications
- The 3G4G Blog: Short Tutorial on Mission Critical Services in LTE and 5G
- Connectivity Technology Blog: KDDI Prepares for Disasters with Vehicle-Mounted Base Stations Backhauled via Starlink
- Connectivity Technology Blog: NTT Docomo's Disaster Countermeasures to Keep People Connected
- Connectivity Technology Blog: Virve 2.0 is becoming a broad-band service
- The 3G4G Blog: Virve 2.0 - Finland's 4G/5G Public Safety Network
Comments
Post a Comment