Tele2 AB

Type	Publicly-traded Aktiebolag
Traded as	OMX: TEL2 B
Industry	Telecommunications
Founded	1993
Headquarters	Stockholm, Sweden
Key people	Mike Parton (Chairman), Mats Granryd (CEO)
Products	Mobile and fixed-line telephony, cable TV and Internet services
Revenue	SEK 40.16 billion (2010)[1]
Operating income	SEK 7.088 billion (2010)[1]
Profit	SEK 6.926 billion (2010)[1]
Total assets	SEK 40.37 billion (end 2010)[1]
Total equity	SEK 28.88 billion (end 2010)[1]
Employees	7,380 (average, 2010)[1]
Website	www.tele2.com

Tele2 AB is a major European telecommunications operator, with about 34 million customers in 11 countries. It serves as a fixed-line telephone operator, cable television provider, mobile phone operator and Internet service provider.

Overview[link]

Tele2 started as a telecommunications company in Sweden in the late 1970s by the company Industriförvaltnings AB Kinnevik. In 1981, a mobile phone provider called Comvik started as an alternative mobile phone operator to Telia, now known as TeliaSonera. The cable television provider Kabelvision AB started in 1986. Comvik changed its name to become Comviq when the company got a GSM license in 1988 and started operating in 1992.

In 1991, Sweden's first commercial ISP was started with the Swedish IP Network (SWIPnet, AS1257) by Industriförvaltnings AB Kinnevik, later known as Tele2, and in 1993 with telephone liberalisation in Sweden, Tele2 started to offer international calls.

Countries in which Tele2 operates are in red, countries in which Tele2 no longer operates are in green. The map is outdated as of July 2010.

The three companies of Comviq, Kabelvision, and Tele2 came together as the Tele2 brand on fixed-line services and Comviq on mobile services in Sweden in 1997. International growth came in the form of acquisitions in Estonia, Latvia, Russia & France. Today it serves as a major telephone company in the Nordic and Baltic nations, together as an alternative provider in many others.

Tele2 operates in Austria, Croatia, Estonia, Germany, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, and Sweden.

Divestments[link]

Tele2's most recent development has been to realign its geographic footprint towards Eastern Europe and the Nordic region focusing on own infrastructure based operations which provide higher growth options and possibly better margins for the future. One area of notable success has been the growth of the mobile Internet broadband connectivity. Tele2 has achieved the most success in Russian market, with a customer base increasing by the hundreds of thousands yearly.

In 2007 the company sold its holdings in Belgium to Dutch operator KPN, in France to SFR and activities in Spain and Italy to Vodafone Italy, in Portugal to Clix and in Switzerland to TDC Sunrise. In March 2008 Tele2 divested its Austrian MVNO operations to Telekom Austria, although retaining its fixed line and internet services. In June 2008 Tele2 sold its Liechtenstein and Luxembourg holdings to Belgian operator Belgacom. The same month Tele2 sold its Polish operations to Netia.

Operations[link]

Austria[link]

Croatia[link]

In Croatia, Tele2 operates a 3G network. As of May 2012^[update], it has 722,000 customers.^[2]

Estonia[link]

Tele2 is rolling out a HSPA-enabled 3G network currently covering some 80% of the population.

In Q3 2010, the national regulator announced the auctioning process for 4G licenses in which Tele2 will participate.

France[link]

Tele2 used to operate as 2G MVNO in France use Orange network for coverage and joined to Virgin Mobile on 2009.

Germany[link]

In Germany, Tele2 provides fixed broadband via ADSL as well as fixed telephony.

Kazakhstan[link]

51% of Neo Telecom was purchased by Tele2 in early 2010 to serve as a base for the company's mobile services in Kazakhstan. Tele2 has an option to buy the remaining 49% of Neo Telecom within 5 years after the contract was closed. Tele2 is the smallest of three mobile operators in Kazakhstan with about 1.5 million customers.

Latvia[link]

Tele2 operates as one of the largest nationwide 2G/3G MNO(Mobile Network Operator) in Latvia. Tele2 Shared Service Centre is also located in Latvia.

Lithuania[link]

Tele2 operates a nationwide GSM network in Lithuania.

Netherlands[link]

Tele2 operates as a 2G/3G MVNO in the Netherlands with nearly 400000 customers.

On July 15th 2010, Tele2 demonstrated the first LTE network in the Netherlands on the frequencies it was awarded licenses for earlier the same year. No concrete plans for a nationwide LTE network exist at this time.

In late 2010, Tele2 Netherlands acquired BBned from Telecom Italia.

Norway[link]

Tele2 Norway consists of the brands Tele2, OneCall, Lebara and Network Norway. Currently Tele2 is building the third mobile network in Norway.

Russia[link]

Tele2 started the operations in Russia by acquiring 12 regional mobile operators from its sister company Millicom in 2001. This has been expanded to a current 37 regions and with a customer base of over 20 million subscribers, Russia is Tele2s largest market by customer base.

Sweden[link]

Sweden is where Tele2 originated and it remains one of its strongest markets serving over 4 million customers.

When PTS awarded four licenses for the 3rd generation mobile networks in December 2001, Tele2 was among the winners. Notably Telia, the former telephony incumbent in Sweden, did not receive a license and so an agreement was established to build a 3G network jointly by Tele2 and Telia using Tele2s license. SUNAB builds, owns and operates that 3G network.

A similar company, Net4Mobility, was formed in 2009 between Tele2 and Telenor for the purpose of building a joint 4G (or LTE actually) network. Unlike 3G, both the parent companies were awarded frequency licenses and so it is likely that this network will outperform other Swedish operators networks simply because there are more available frequencies for the customers. The 4G product was officially launched on the 15th of November in 2010 and currently (as of May 2012) covers over 90 municipalities^[3]. "National" coverage, able to serve 99% of the population in Sweden, has an expected completion date at the end of 2012. As the equipment used by Net4Mobility can serve both LTE and 2G, the new network built primarily for LTE will also replace the aging 2G networks of Tele2 and Telenor, providing lower cost through shared infrastructure. In addition, it enables EDGE, a service previously not available via Tele2.

Criticism[link]

During its operation in the United Kingdom^[4] and Italy,^[5] Tele2 was criticised for using the practice of telephone slamming (changing consumer's residential phone line over to a new provider without their consent). In Italy was also criticized to block P2P traffic without warning consumers.^[6]

The company was also criticised for faking a meteorite landing in Latvia in October 2009, as a result of which the Latvian government cancelled its contract with Tele2.^[7]

See also[link]

Companies portal

• List of Swedish television channels

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website

v t e OMX Stockholm 30 companies of Sweden ABB Alfa Laval Assa Abloy AstraZeneca Atlas Copco Boliden Electrolux Ericsson Getinge Hennes & Mauritz Investor AB Lundin Petroleum Modern Times Group Nokia Nordea Sandvik SCA Scania SEB Securitas Skanska SKF SSAB Svenska Handelsbanken Swedbank Swedish Match Tele2 TeliaSonera Volvo