Finland makes the last call to landlines as it eliminates copper networks and turns to fiber optics.
Finland on Tuesday ended analog landline calls after nearly 150 years, becoming the latest country to embark on a global shift to digital infrastructure.
Estonia, the Netherlands , Norway and Spain have already taken the plunge, as countries around the world install fiber optic networks that can handle both internet services and voice calls.
The Finnish landline network began operating in the 1880s, but, as elsewhere, the digital revolution has swept away the old technology based on copper wires.
And the northern country, home to mobile pioneer Nokia, has seen the use of landlines replaced by mobile technology.
Elisa, the country's last major telecom provider with a fixed-line copper network, signaled the end of its service with a call between the company's CEO, Topi Manner, and Jarkko Saarimaki, head of the country's communications and transport authority.
The two men discussed their memories of landlines, with Manner recalling his years as a teenager in London in the 1980s, when he would call home once a week at a set time to make sure the whole family was there.
They also discussed the future of mobile technologies, before ending the call with a relaxed "kuulemiin," which in Finnish means "see you later."
Why are copper wire phones analog?
Copper wires, the type of wiring used in landlines for over a century, can only carry a limited amount of data. Phone calls are carried as a continuous electrical signal that mimics the original sound wave, which is what makes them analog.
Phone calls and internet traffic are increasingly carried over fiber optics, which use thin glass fibers to transmit information as pulses of light, offering much faster and more reliable connections.
When it announced its decision to withdraw the network in January, a move that its competitors had already made earlier, Elisa said that its customers had only "a few thousand" landline-only connections, while no new ones had been sold in recent years.
From Tuesday, only local providers will continue to offer landline packages in Finland, serving a few thousand customers who rely on local calls, according to public broadcaster Yle.
