Atea expands offering in mobile solutions for commercial customers, acquires 17.5% of eRate
Atea has announced plans to offer mobile service to businesses and public sector customers as a virtual mobile operator in Norway. Today, Atea resells mobile services to its customers as an agent for telecom companies. Going forward, Atea will distribute services from telecom companies, and sell them directly to the commercial market under its own brand.
The expanded mobile offering will be a separate business unit in Atea Norway, carrying the name Atea Mobile and with 30 internally hired employees.
Atea will deliver traditional mobile subscriptions, but will also prepare for the expected growth of emerging “internet of things” applications that will be connected to the mobile network. Atea sees tremendous growth opportunities in this area, through offering products and services for smart cities, digitalization of health, schools and transport networks, industrial technologies, smart homes and other commercial applications.
”Given the long track record and broad competences we have within IT and systems integration, no other company will be better positioned to offer customers in our region the mobile solutions of the future. We will make sure that our customers get a mobile platform that enables them to realize the enormous possibilities that this technological development offers,” says Michael Jacobs, Managing Director of Atea Norway.
In order to facilitate its offering as a virtual mobile operator, Atea announced on Tuesday that it has acquired 17.5% of Erate AS, a company which for several years has facilitated new entrants into the telecom market.
Erate provides a platform which facilitates the setup of virtual mobile operators in the telecom industry. Their customers benefit from already established network operator agreements and economies of scale. Erate facilitates network access for mobile, fixed telephony, mobile broadband, VoIP and M2M communication. Additionally, Erate provides solutions and systems for billing and customer relationship management, where the company has expertise in billing and technical project management.
The company is located in Oslo, Norway and has 20 employees with a revenue in 2016 of NOK 161 million. In total, Atea pays NOK 10 million for its shareholding in Erate. The acquisition will strengthen Atea’s ability to drive innovation, and product and service development to the mobile market.
For further information, please contact:
Steinar Sønsteby, CEO Atea ASA, mobile (+47) 930 55 655
Robert Giori, CFO Atea ASA, mobile (+47) 934 09 188
About Atea
Atea is the leading supplier of IT infrastructure and system integration in the Nordic and Baltic regions with 6,900 employees. Atea is present in 86 cities in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Atea delivers IT products from leading vendors and assists its customers with specialist competencies within IT infrastructure services. Atea had revenue of approximately NOK 31 billion in 2016 and is listed on Oslo Stock Exchange. https://www.atea.com