Data transferred for the first time between developers of Virve 2.0 service

A test Virve 2.0 SIM card was used to connect to the Internet and the data was passed through the entire network for the first time.

“This is a greenfield operation, which is very rare these days considering the scope of the project. Getting this far required a huge amount of work from us in the areas of design, hardware and software installations, deployments and integrations. We faced some challenges, but were able to overcome those. In the end, I was surprised at how easy it was to integrate the Core and the radio access network. Now the testing can really begin,” says Joel Lehtomäki, Development Manager responsible for testing in the project.

This concrete achievement illustrates the rapid pace of development in the Virve 2.0 project. Antti Kauppinen has been leading the broadband development of Virve services for several years. How does he assess the milestone?

“This is definitely an important milestone for the Virve 2.0 project. The integration is the result of several months of work in close cooperation between Erillisverkot, Elisa and Ericsson. With the capability now in place, we will be able to provide data services later this year. The coming years will also be busy for the project. The transition from the current Virve service to the new one is planned for 2023-2025,” says Antti Kauppinen, Chief Technology Officer, Erillisverkot.

Virve 2.0 is one of the key ICT projects of the Finnish government in the 2020s. The Virve public safety network will gradually become a broadband service from 2023 onwards. The key information systems of the service operated by Erilllisverkot are provided by Ericsson and Elisa is responsible for the 4G and 5G radio network service.