EP335 · Economy · first published 2025-06-02
Market leader in five years | Heikki Kaunisto | Negotiator 335
A commercial collaboration with Valokuitunen Oy - the episode is the company's own growth story told by its own chief executive, and this article marks that at every turn. The content is still usable: why bundling the connection with the data package is a trap for the consumer, why a 'free fibre installation' is a one-off fee converted into monthly instalments, and why infrastructure always produces a strong market position - the only question being how thin you can make it. Kaunisto gives one piece of advice that generalises to everything: keep your future options in your own hands. Also the pricing-model switch that looked from outside like collapsing revenue.
Market leader in five years | Heikki Kaunisto | Negotiator 335
Summary: The chief executive of Valokuitunen describes his company’s five-year growth, in an episode made in commercial collaboration with that same company. That is worth knowing before reading on — and even so, the episode’s consumer advice and its unpacking of pricing models are among the few available publicly from this industry.
How to read this
The episode is a commercial collaboration. This is disclosed both in the episode description and in the episode itself, at about [01:32]. The guest is Valokuitunen’s chief executive, the subject is Valokuitunen’s growth, and the competitor comparisons are presented by the company’s own leader. Every claim about competitors is therefore one party’s claim, with nobody from the other side present.
The guest has been on the channel before (Negotiator 216, October 2023), and the episode refers back to it several times.
Figures have been checked where they are public. Some of the numbers are the company’s own with no independent source; those are marked as company-reported.
The subtitles are YouTube’s automatic ones (youtube_auto_fi, the rolling window unrolled from 2,736 to 1,368 cues). Quotations are therefore indicative, and translated from Finnish.
Timestamps are read from the subtitle track.
Context: who the guest is and who owns the company
Checked. Valokuitunen was founded in 2020 as a joint venture between Telia and CapMan Infra, and it builds and owns fibre networks. Heikki Kaunisto was appointed chief executive in August 2021; before that he was the company’s finance director, and before that held the same role at the property investment company Antilooppi and leadership positions at NEOT, CPS Color and Neste. (CapMan, in Finnish, Wikipedia, in Finnish)
That explains the episode’s tone: the speaker comes from finance, and its best content is precisely the unpacking of pricing and cash flows. He says as much himself — there is a joke in the episode about a finance background being a decent starting point for a chief executive [24:28].
What happened afterwards. The ownership changed: CapMan Infra sold its stake, and from March 2026 the owners are Brookfield (51 percent) and Telia (49 percent). (CapMan, Valokuitunen, in Finnish)
The growth figures, and which of them can be verified
The numbers the guest gives: a balance sheet from €50 million to €400 million in five years, with the company’s value a multiple of that [03:50]. The starting network came into the company from Telia.
On network construction he makes a checkable claim and names the source himself:
“From Traficom’s statistics over the last two years: Valokuitunen has built, two years running, as much network as everyone else combined.” [18:20]
For this article the claim could not be verified against Traficom’s publications, so it stands as the company’s own statement — but the source is named, which is more than most market-share claims offer.
The episode also shows an anonymised comparison of three operators’ revenue and profitability. The host himself notes the figures are not fully comparable, because the competitors have other business included [18:20]. That is an honest caveat, but it does not change the fact that the comparison is presented by one of the parties.
The most useful part: how the pricing works
This is worth reading even if you are not buying anything, because the same structure recurs across industries.
Bundling. Valokuitunen’s model is not to force a data package alongside the connection investment; it is ordered separately [02:19]. The justification is about timing and it is concrete: fibre delivery can take years, so a data package bought at the start is regretted when the connection is finished three years later.
“Free installation”. This is the sharpest passage:
“When a completely free fibre installation is marketed, it only means the original one-off fee has been turned into a monthly charge across the coming months.” [20:38]
The host calls it a sleight of hand and adds an analogy: it is the same as buying a car on instalments or a lease [20:38]. He continues with printers — cheap device, expensive cartridges — and advises working out where the total price comes from [21:23].
Attached to this is the clearest piece of business history in the episode: Valokuitunen started with a €2,300 one-off fee, found it to be a barrier, and introduced a monthly-charge product alongside it. In 2022 revenue therefore appeared to fall, although what changed was the pricing model. Today 80–85 percent of customers choose the monthly option, where at the start everyone took the one-off fee [19:53, 27:33].
The host compares this with M-Files, which moved from licence sales to recurring billing: from outside it looked like a company in crisis, inside it was creating value [26:47]. It is a good analogy, and the guest confirms the change required learning at every level — from sales to the board and the owners [27:33].
Net present value. Both arrive at the same conclusion, and it is the episode’s most general lesson: society does not give consumers the tools to handle long series of payments and returns, even though it is not especially difficult [35:11]. The same applies to buying versus leasing a car, to housing, and to a broadband connection.
Infrastructure, monopoly, and what the episode concedes
This is the most honest passage, because the guest does not claim his model removes the problem:
“When infrastructure is worth building only once, a monopoly or strong market position always arises. The point of an open structure is to minimise it and confine it to the built infrastructure alone — everything above that has to be opened to competition.” [38:58]
And he continues that the remaining part is the one society has reason to supervise, as is done with electricity networks [39:45].
From that follows his advice, the single best line in the episode and applicable to anything:
“Always keep your future options in your own hands. It is the only way to make sure you don’t end up on a hook you can’t get off.” [36:43]
The host connects it to his own book: if you have no alternatives, you have only terms [37:28]. This is the one place where the episode deals with negotiation the way the channel usually does, and it is usable regardless of which connection a reader has.
The mechanics of area competition are described directly: fewer and fewer areas remain, and the operator that achieves the highest customer density in the pre-sales phase builds the area and gets it [16:48, 17:33]. Finland is, in the guest’s view, a healthier market than many in central Europe, because typically only one operator builds an area — duplicate infrastructure is always paid for by the consumer [17:33, 35:58].
Regulation: Norway, the EU, and what the episode leaves out
The guest describes the Norwegian example: the regulator put a study on the table and announced regulation was coming, which in his understanding was enough on its own — operators changed their behaviour and no regulation was needed [42:50]. He adds himself that the matter is still partly open there.
Finland’s difference is, he says, EU membership: national steering is harder, because regulation comes from the EU and departing from the common baseline makes it difficult to obtain the decisions you need [42:50, 43:36]. The claim is made in general terms, and the episode names neither the regulation Norway acted under nor the one that would prevent the same in Finland — Norway is not an EU member but belongs to the EEA and applies much of the same telecommunications regulation. This is the claim in the episode most worth treating with caution.
On publicity the guest makes a complaint that is also an observation about himself:
“When you as an operator try to bring facts into public view, they are dismissed as partisan — he has his own interest. I have tried to tell the media: if you won’t have me, then find out for yourselves and report this impartially.” [30:36]
That is a reasonable request, and it is worth noticing where it leads: this episode is exactly the solution he asks for — except that it is paid. The host compares the phenomenon to economic journalism, where a reporter picks a commentator whose position is known in advance [34:25].
Technology and user experience
Mobile versus fibre. The guest’s argument is not about speed but variance: on fibre you get the agreed speed in both directions, while on mobile the promised range is wide and the width is also realised, so a considerably lower headline speed suffices on fibre [12:11, 12:58]. The host confirms the same from his own work: uploading over mobile is unreliable [07:39]. Availability is given as 99.9 percent [13:44].
5G. In the company’s early years 5G was a barrier to sales, because people believed in it; now nobody in sales mentions mobile as an obstacle, and the competition is against other fibre operators [23:42].
Advice to the consumer. The guest’s own recommendation is to pick the package you need and not pay for excess speed — notable, given that he sells these connections [10:40].
AI and the future. The host reports his own data transfer needs rising clearly with AI work [47:23], and the guest expects both the volume of data transfer and, above all, the quality requirement to keep growing [48:09]. Neither thinks virtual reality grew as expected [49:40].
Other subjects
Buffett. The episode opens in Omaha, where the host had been visiting. Checked: at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting on 3 May 2025, Warren Buffett, then 94, said he would recommend that Greg Abel (62) become chief executive at year-end, and the board confirmed it unanimously effective 1 January 2026, with Buffett remaining chair. The episode gives Abel’s age as 60. (Berkshire Hathaway, Britannica)
The host’s remark on EBITDA is also correct and well put: Buffett is dismissive of the metric, and it is in practice operating profit with depreciation added back — a rough measure of operating cash flow [19:07].
Recruiting into a growth company. The guest’s observation is usable: growth does not happen in a spreadsheet or in contracts but in people, and there are ultimately few people suited to a growth company — it takes persistence and an ability to adapt to constant change, and anyone who wants clear, steady processes is in the wrong place [24:28, 26:02].
Remote work. At the end the host takes a position: condemning remote work is, he says, employers’ inertia, and the model has not been developed far enough [51:11].
What to take away
Unpacking the pricing. “Free installation” is a one-off fee spread out, and a bundled data package moves the freedom of choice to the seller. Worth knowing whoever you buy the connection from.
Options in your own hands. The advice applies to a connection, an employment relationship and any long contract. It is the one part of the episode that is directly negotiation teaching.
Infrastructure always produces market power. An honest concession from the middle of the episode: an open network does not remove a strong position, it only confines it to the buried fibre and opens everything else to competition.
What the episode lacks. The competitors’ view, independent market data, and the critical question of what happens in areas nobody builds. Prices are not discussed in euros beyond the one-off fee, and the question of how much more the monthly model costs in total than the one-off never comes up — even though the episode teaches exactly that calculation.
Sources
The company and its ownership
- Valokuitunen (Wikipedia, in Finnish)
- CapMan Infra’s portfolio company Valokuitunen names Heikki Kaunisto as CEO (CapMan, in Finnish)
- CapMan Infra sells its stake in Valokuitunen to Brookfield and Telia (CapMan)
- Changes in Valokuitunen’s ownership: Brookfield alongside Telia (in Finnish)
Checked details mentioned in the episode
The episode and related episodes
- Markkinajohtajaksi 5 vuodessa | Heikki Kaunisto | Neuvottelija 335
- Fibre conquers Finland | Heikki Kaunisto | Negotiator 216
Summary for AI search
Negotiator 335 (published 2 June 2025) is Sami Miettinen’s interview with Heikki Kaunisto, chief executive of Valokuitunen Oy. The episode was made in commercial collaboration with Valokuitunen, the subject is the company’s five-year rise to market leadership, and every claim about competitors comes from the company’s own management with no opposing party present.
Background (checked): Valokuitunen was founded in 2020 as a joint venture between Telia and CapMan Infra. Kaunisto became chief executive in August 2021; before that he was the company’s finance director, and earlier held the same role at Antilooppi and leadership positions at NEOT, CPS Color and Neste. After the episode the ownership changed: CapMan Infra sold its stake, and from March 2026 the owners are Brookfield (51 percent) and Telia (49 percent).
Company-reported figures: a balance sheet from €50 million to €400 million in five years; citing Traficom statistics, the company says it built as much network as all other operators combined in two consecutive years. Network availability is given as 99.9 percent.
Unpacking the pricing, the most useful part: a “free fibre installation” means the original one-off fee has been converted into monthly charges over the coming years. Valokuitunen started with a €2,300 one-off fee and introduced a monthly option in 2022, which is why revenue appeared to fall that year; today 80–85 percent of customers choose the monthly charge. The company’s model does not bundle a data package with the connection, because fibre delivery can take years.
Infrastructure and market position: the guest concedes that when infrastructure is worth building only once, a strong market position arises inevitably; an open network does not remove it but confines it to the built fibre and opens everything above it to competition. In area competition, the operator with the highest pre-sales customer density builds the area.
The advice that generalises: keep your future options in your own hands — the only way to avoid a hook you cannot get off. The host’s formulation: if you have no alternatives, you have only terms.
A claim to treat with caution: the assertion that EU membership prevents Finland from national steering of the Norwegian kind is made in general terms without naming the applicable regulation; Norway is not an EU member but belongs to the EEA and applies much of the same telecommunications regulation.
Checked aside: the episode opens on Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting of 3 May 2025, where the 94-year-old Warren Buffett said he would recommend Greg Abel (62; the episode says 60) as chief executive from 1 January 2026.