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Telia Company

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TeliaSonera AB
Company typePublicly traded Aktiebolag
Nasdaq Stockholm: TLSN
ISINSE0000667925 Edit this on Wikidata
IndustryTelecommunications
Founded2003; 21 years ago (2003)
HeadquartersStureplan, Stockholm, Sweden
Area served
Europe, Asia
Key people
Johan Dennelind (President and CEO), Marie Ehrling (Chairman)
ProductsFixed-line communications, mobile network operator, Internet services
RevenueSEK 101 billion (2014)[1]
SEK 22.68 billion (2014)[1]
SEK 15.60 billion (2014)[1]
Total assetsSEK 272.066 billion (end 2014)[1]
Total equitySEK 116.36 billion (end 2014)[1]
OwnerGovernment of Sweden (37.3%)
Solidium (Finnish state) (3.2%)[2]
Number of employees
26,166 (end 2014)[1]
Websiteteliasonera.com

TeliaSonera AB is the dominant telephone company and mobile network operator in Sweden and Finland. The company has operations in other countries in Northern, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, South Asia and Spain, with a total of 182.1 million mobile customers (Q1, 2013). It is headquartered in Stockholm and its stocks are traded on the Stockholm Stock Exchange and on the Helsinki Stock Exchange.

History

TeliaSonera is the result of a 2002 merger between the Swedish and Finnish telecommunications companies, Telia and Sonera. This merger followed shortly after Telia's failed merger with Norwegian telecommunications company Telenor, now its chief competitor in the Nordic countries.

Telia has a history as a state telephone monopoly, before privatisation. Sonera on the other hand used to have monopoly only on trunk network calls, while most (c. 75%) of local telecommunication was provided by telephone cooperatives. The separate brand names Telia and Sonera have continued to be used in the Swedish and Finnish markets respectively. Of the shares, 37% are owned by the Swedish government, 3.2% by the Finnish government, and the rest by institutions, companies, and private investors worldwide.

Telia

See also: Televerket (Sweden)

The Swedish Kungl. Telegrafverket (literally: Royal Telegraph Agency) was founded in 1853, when the first electric telegraph line was established between Stockholm and Uppsala. Allmänna Telefon was able to find an equipment supplier in Lars Magnus Ericsson. In this early competition, Telegrafverket with its brand Rikstelefon was a latecomer. However, by securing a national monopoly on long distance telephone lines, it was able with time to control and take over the local networks of quickly growing private telephone companies.

A de facto telephone monopoly position was reached around 1920, and never needed legal sanction. In 1953 the name was modernised to Televerket. On 1 July 1992 this huge government agency's regulating functions was split off into the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (Swedish: Post- och telestyrelsen, PTS), with similar functions as the Federal Communications Commission of the United States. The operation of the state radio and TV broadcast network was spun off into a company named Teracom. On 1 July 1993 the remaining telephone and mobile network operator was transformed into a government-owned shareholding company, named Telia AB. At the height of the dot-com bubble, on 13 June 2000, close to one third of Telia's shares were introduced on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, bringing solid cash to the Swedish state.

In the 1980s, Televerket was a pioneering mobile network operator with the NMT system, followed in the 1990s by GSM. Private competition in analogue mobile phone systems had already broken the telephone monopoly, and the growing internet allowed more opportunities for competitors. The most important of Telia's Swedish competitors in these areas has been Tele2. When PTS awarded four licenses for the 3rd generation mobile networks in December 2000, Telia was not among the winners, but later established an agreement to build a 3G network jointly with Tele2 using Tele2's licence. SUNAB was founded as the jointly owned company that would in turn build, own and operate the joint 3G network.

Sonera

The history of Sonera dates back to 1917, when Suomen Lennätinlaitos (Finnish Telegraph Agency) was founded. In 1927, the telegraph agency was merged with the Finnish Post to form a new agency, Post and Telegraph Agency. This agency governed all long distance and international calls until 1994, when competitors were allowed to enter the Finnish market. In the same year, the Post and Telegraph Agency was divided to form two companies, Suomen Posti Oy (Finnish Post), and Telecom Finland Oy. Telecom Finland then changed its name to Sonera in 1998.

After merger

During the run up to the 2006 general election the Swedish liberal-conservative Alliance stated as one of its policy aims to reduce government ownership in commercial entities, and specifically to sell its stake in TeliaSonera. The Alliance went on to win the election and formed a coalition government. The sale of TeliaSonera was however presented to the parliament only after the next election in 2010, where the Alliance lost its majority but stayed on as a minority administration.

On March 16, 2011 the Alliance administration lost a parliament vote on sale of publicly owned commercial entities, including TeliaSonera, when a coalition of all opposition parties - Left Party, Social Democratic Party, Green Party and Sweden Democrats united against the Alliance.[3]

In the beginning of 2008, TeliaSonera announced measures to save nearly 500 million Euros which would include 2900 redundancies: 2000 from Sweden and 900 from Finland.[4] France Télécom (now Orange S.A.) proposed a 33 billion Euro acquisition offer for TeliaSonera on 5 June 2008, which was promptly rejected by the company's board.[5]

TeliaSonera International Carrier (AS1299) is a tier 1 carrier.

Operations

TeliaSonera global activities.
Majority-owned operations.
Associated companies.

TeliaSonera is now the largest Nordic and Baltic fixed-voice, broadband, and mobile operator by revenue and customer base. It operates Europe's largest and fastest-growing wholesale IP backbone (AS1299) and is the 10th-largest global mobile group by consolidated customers (including ownership stakes in Turkcell,[6] Yoigo, Megafon, NetCom, and others).[7]

Telia mobile telephone business in Europe.
(Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden) Leader company.
(Finland, Norway and Moldova) 2nd company.
(Denmark) 3rd company.
(Spain) 4th company.

Afghanistan

TeliaSonera is a 12.25% stakeholder of the Afghanistan Roshan (telco) cellphone network.[8]

Azerbaijan

From May 15, 2010 after Azercell made rebranding, it entered into a network of TeliaSonera.

Denmark

In Denmark TeliaSonera operates a mobile operator (Telia), a mobile MVNO (Call Me) and a broadband supplier (Telia). The company started in 1995 and was a merger between Telia Stofa and TeliaSonera. Telia Mobile is the third-largest operator and is in fierce competition with Telenor, which is number two in the market. Telia was the fourth operator to launch 3G services and is the only operator to have a nationwide EDGE network.

Telia Broadband was relaunched in 2008 because of the need for TeliaSonera to have both mobile and broadband in all of their home markets (Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland). Telia Broadband was the first operator to launch digital TV with their broadband at no extra cost. Stofa is mainly a cable TV operator, but also supplies broadband via the cable TV network.

Telia and Deutsche Telekom are fighting over the right to use magenta in their marketing.

Finland

Sonera is the biggest mobile operator in Finland and also one of the biggest providers of landline telephone and Internet services. TeliaSonera also operates in Finland in the form of another company, Tele Finland Oy, which is a budget mobile operator.

Estonia

TeliaSonera owns 100% of Eesti Telekom. Eesti Telekom is one of the largest telecommunication companies in the Baltic countries and the largest telecommunications company in Estonia. TeliaSonera and the Estonian government reached a deal over the sale of Eesti Telekom in September 2009. On 20 January 2016, Eesti Telekom switched its name to Telia Eesti.

Georgia

Since 2007 TeliaSonera has owned 58.55% of the Geocell company, while Turkcell owns the remaining 41.45%.

Kazakhstan

TeliaSonera operates in Kazakhstan under the brand Kcell.

Lithuania

TeliaSonera owns 88.15% of Teo LT, the largest landline phone operator in Lithuania, which recently purchased Omnitel, one of largest mobile network operators in Lithuania. It was previously owned by TeliaSonera group.

Latvia

TeliaSonera owns 49% of LMT (24.5% as TeliaSonera AB and 24.5% as Sonera Holding B.V.). TeliaSonera also owns 49% of Lattelecom, which owns 23% of LMT, which owns Okarte, Amigo. It also owns 100% of Telia Latvija, a business cable operator and data center operator.

Moldova

TeliaSonera owns a 74,3% see-through stake of the Moldovan mobile operator Moldcell through Fintur Holdings.

Nepal

TeliaSonera owns majority stake in Ncell, the largest mobile operator in Nepal. However, on December 21, 2015 TeliaSonera has already announced it's exit from Ncell selling its 60.4 percent of the share to Malaysian telecommunications group Axiata.[9]

Norway

In Norway Telia first entered after the deregulation in 1998 as a virtual supplier of fixed telephone and Internet services. This was sold to Enitel during the merger attempt with Telenor, but Telia re-entered in 2000 with the purchase of one of the two mobile network operators, NetCom. In 2006 it also bought the virtual mobile provider Chess Communication.

Russia

TeliaSonera owns 25.2% of MegaFon, the second largest mobile phone operator in Russia.

Spain

TeliaSonera owns 76.6% of Yoigo, the fourth mobile operator in Spain.

Sweden

In Sweden, TeliaSonera operates under the consumer brands Telia and Halebop. On the business side, Skanova Access and Cygate are also used.

Tajikistan

TeliaSonera owns merge of two operators as Tcell.

Turkey

TeliaSonera owns 38% of Turkcell, the leading mobile operator in Turkey. Turkcell owns 80% of BeST in Belarus and 55% of Astelit in Ukraine

Uzbekistan

In 5 years, Ucell, the Uzbek subsidiary, has increased the number of its subscribers from 400,000 to 9 million (2012). Meanwhile, TeliaSonera is under preliminary investigation by Swedish prosecutors for allegations of bribery and money laundering associated with the acquisition of their 3G license in Uzbekistan from Takilant Limited, registered in Gibraltar.[10] Under these investigations involving four Uzbek nationals, hundreds of millions of francs have been frozen in Swiss banks.[11]

Evolution of the TeliaSonera Branding

The old logo of TeliaSonera

When Telia and Sonera merged in 2002, TeliaSonera used a simple wordmark as the logo. In 2011, TeliaSonera released its new purple pebble logo to the corporation and its affiliate brands. The pebble is designed by Landor Associates.[12][13]

Controversies

TeliaSonera has, in the past, sold fake certificates to dictatorships which allowed them to do man-in-the-middle attacks on their citizens. The citizens thought they were using encrypted communications while the boxes supplied by TeliaSonera had been decrypted and re-encrypted for the secret police. This was disclosed in the Swedish TV show Uppdrag Granskning in 2012.[14] TeliaSonera responded to these allegations with: "This is happening every day in all countries and applies to all operators. We are obliged to comply with the legislation of each country."[15]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Annual and Sustainability Report 2014" (PDF). TeliaSonera. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
  2. ^ Shareholdings as of June 30, 2015 TeliaSonera.com
  3. ^ Försäljning av statliga bolag stoppas Sveriges Radio, 16 mars 2011
  4. ^ "TeliaSonera Strike Postponed". Yle Uutiset. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  5. ^ "France Telecom improves offer for TeliaSonera". AFP. BNET. 5 June 2008. Retrieved 2009-04-26.
  6. ^ "TeliaSonera - press release". Cision Wire. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
  7. ^ "home". Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  8. ^ "Shareholders". Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  9. ^ "TeliaSonera quits nepal, Ncell sold to Malaysian Telco group Axiata for 1.03Bil USD • TechSansar.com". TechSansar.com. https://google.com/+TechSansar. Retrieved 2015-12-21. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
  10. ^ Milne, Richard (October 8, 2012). "TeliaSonera to investigate Uzbek licence - FT.com". Financial Times. Retrieved 9 October 2012.
  11. ^ "Corruption Probe into TeliaSonera Uzbek Deal". The Gazette of Central Asia. Satrapia. 3 October 2012.
  12. ^ A new, uniting brand identity for TeliaSonera
  13. ^ UnderConsideration LLC. "Brand New: Purple Pebbles Everywhere". Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  14. ^ How Teliasonera Sells to Dictatorships - Uppdrag Granskning : The Black Boxes - Mission Investigation. Vimeo. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  15. ^ "Mozilla Weighs Excommunication For Certificate Authority TeliaSonera". Dark Reading. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
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