---
title: "Market leader in five years | Heikki Kaunisto | Negotiator 335"
titleOriginal: "Markkinajohtajaksi 5 vuodessa | Heikki Kaunisto | Neuvottelija 335"
episodeNumber: "335"
guest: "Heikki Kaunisto"
datePublished: 2025-06-02
duration: "52:29"
youtube: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0"
originalLanguage: "fi"
topics: ["finnish_economy_policy","investing_markets","leadership_governance"]
subtitleMethod: "none"
provenance: "Owner page assembled from YouTube metadata, the neuvottelija.fi episode record and the publisher's own chapter marks, translated one for one; their spacing is irregular and matches the recording. The only Finnish subtitle track is YouTube's automatic one, so no transcript is published here and no English cues were produced. The episode was made in commercial collaboration with Valokuitunen Oy — the guest is the company's chief executive and the subject is his own company — which is disclosed in the episode itself and again in the long-form write-up in the Neuvottelija AI editions; every claim about competitors there comes from one side with nobody opposing."
fiCanonical: "https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/632-markkinajohtajaksi-5-vuodessa-kaunisto-neuvottelija-335"
canonical: https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep335-markkinajohtajaksi-5-vuodessa-heikki-kaunisto/
---
# Market leader in five years | Heikki Kaunisto | Negotiator 335

English subtitles are not available on this page. This is an episode summary, not a curated transcript.

## Chapters

- [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0&t=0s) Warren Buffett's 80-year run ended in Omaha
- [00:26](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0&t=26s) Heikki Kaunisto and Valokuitunen's five-year run
- [00:48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0&t=48s) The long game and the owners on the way to market leadership
- [01:21](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0&t=81s) A fresh start in the fixed network
- [02:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0&t=130s) Making the data package optional as an edge in a slow-delivery market
- [03:04](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0&t=184s) Taking the market, building the organisation, earning customer trust
- [03:28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0&t=208s) Building from nothing while growing at the same time
- [03:49](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0&t=229s) Antilooppi's billion-euro growth and the same logic
- [04:11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0&t=251s) The leap in the balance sheet and strategic scaling
- [04:49](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0&t=289s) Infrastructure investment demands a robust business model
- [05:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0&t=314s) What the owners contributed to the foundation
- [06:39](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0&t=399s) Mobile subscription cycles and the logic of switching
- [08:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0&t=494s) The advantages of fibre and the threshold for going back to mobile
- [10:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0&t=602s) Technology neutrality and why the user experience is what counts
- [11:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0&t=692s) Bundled deals, price rises and consumer choice
- [13:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0&t=795s) Layered mobile backup against outages
- [16:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0&t=965s) Acquiring customers efficiently in sparsely populated areas
- [17:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0&t=1070s) Valokuitunen as market leader
- [19:11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0&t=1151s) Comparison with competitors — scale and EBITDA
- [21:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0&t=1263s) Switching to monthly pricing, and the transformation it required
- [23:42](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0&t=1422s) Faith in 5G fades, the value of fibre rises in sales
- [25:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0&t=1503s) Recruiting into a growth company, and the people it suits
- [28:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0&t=1720s) The effect of publicity and the media's lack of understanding
- [32:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0&t=1922s) Consumers build the infrastructure by their own choices
- [35:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0&t=2158s) Net present value, cash flows and the logic of the decision
- [39:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0&t=2352s) An open network prevents a monopoly position locking in
- [40:44](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0&t=2444s) The risk of an unused network and a change of owner
- [42:24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0&t=2544s) Regulation, the EU's influence and national divergence
- [44:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0&t=2643s) A free market works without central planning
- [45:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0&t=2722s) What the five years achieved, and the next steps
- [46:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0&t=2814s) The rise of AI and growing demand for data transfer
- [48:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0&t=2910s) Fibre's scalability for future experiences
- [50:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0&t=3017s) Business and public customers, and enabling remote work
- [51:52](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0&t=3112s) Productivity and confidence resting on the connection

## Summary

A commercial collaboration with Valokuitunen Oy: the company's five-year rise to market leadership in Finnish fibre, told by its own chief executive. That is disclosed in the episode itself, and it is worth knowing before the competitor comparisons — they are presented by one of the parties, with nobody from the other side present.

## The pricing, unpacked

This is the part worth hearing whoever you buy a connection from. A "free fibre installation" means the original one-off fee has been converted into monthly charges across the coming years; the host's analogy is buying a car on instalments. Valokuitunen's own model does not bundle a data package with the connection, on the concrete ground that fibre delivery can take years and a package bought at the start is regretted when the connection finally arrives.

The company's own history illustrates the same point. It began with a €2,300 one-off fee, found it to be a barrier, and introduced a monthly product in 2022 — which made revenue appear to fall that year although what changed was the pricing model. Today 80–85 per cent of customers choose the monthly option.

## What the episode concedes

Kaunisto does not claim his model removes the underlying problem. When infrastructure is worth building only once, a strong market position arises inevitably; the point of an open structure is to confine it to the built fibre and open everything above it to competition. The part that remains is, he says, what society has reason to supervise, as with electricity networks.

From that follows the single best line: keep your future options in your own hands. The host's formulation is that if you have no alternatives, you have only terms.

## Watch

The recording lives on the Neuvottelija channel: [Markkinajohtajaksi 5 vuodessa | Heikki Kaunisto | Neuvottelija 335](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNiPrdukQl0).
A Finnish edition of this episode is published at [www.neuvottelija.fi](https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/632-markkinajohtajaksi-5-vuodessa-kaunisto-neuvottelija-335).

## In depth

The Neuvottelija AI editions carry a long-form write-up of this episode, with the sponsorship disclosed throughout, the company's ownership history checked, and the claims that could not be verified independently marked as company-stated:
[English](https://www.neuvottelija.com/ai/ep335-markkinajohtajaksi-5-vuodessa-heikki-kaunisto/) · [suomeksi](https://www.neuvottelija.fi/economy/ep335-markkinajohtajaksi-5-vuodessa-heikki-kaunisto/).

---

Cite as: Sami Miettinen, Neuvottelija — Market leader in five years | Heikki Kaunisto | Negotiator 335, https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep335-markkinajohtajaksi-5-vuodessa-heikki-kaunisto/, 2025-06-02. For quotes include episode 335 and timestamp.