Elisa, one of Finland’s leading telecom players, has taken a major step into the future. In a newly signed multi-year agreement with Google Cloud, the company plans to move beyond traditional network automation and toward a system that practically runs itself.
This isn’t just about squeezing a few more seconds of uptime. With network traffic ballooning and customer expectations rising, Elisa says it’s no longer enough to react. Instead, they want their network to anticipate, act, and adapt in real time.
The plan involves using Google Cloud’s “Autonomous Network Operations” setup—an architecture built around advanced analytics tools like BigQuery and Spanner, paired with the AI brainpower of Google’s Gemini models. Once up and running, it won’t just alert engineers about issues. It’ll fix them. The system can reroute traffic, lower power usage during slow hours, or launch services for businesses as soon as they’re needed.
Elisa already has one of the world’s most automated networks. But as its COO Sami Komulainen put it, even predictive dashboards aren’t fast enough anymore. “We’re aiming for seconds, not minutes,” he said. “And that requires real autonomy.”
The collaboration focuses heavily on transparency and regulation, with every AI-driven decision logged and reversible. Data stays local too, encrypted and housed in EU-based servers to meet strict privacy laws.
While the technical rollout will happen in phases, starting in 2024, both companies seem confident this could reshape how networks are managed—not just in Finland, but across the industry.
