Europolitan to sell network capacity to ICA's newly started telephony operations

Europolitan to sell network capacity to ICA's newly started telephony operations Europolitan is to sell capacity in its GSM network to ICA's newly started telephony operations, an initiative enabled by a long-term agreement concluded by the companies on Monday concerning so-called service provisioning. It will allow ICA's customers to buy mobile telephony subscriptions directly from ICA during 2001. The purpose of the telephony initiative, along with the setting up of a bank by ICA, is to broaden the range of services offered to ICA's customers. The collaboration with Europolitan initially covers ICA's purchase of capacity in Europolitan's GSM network, but there are also plans for more in-depth collaboration on other matters. "This marks the beginning of in-depth collaboration with ICA in which we plan to broaden the market for mobile telecoms services and create greater freedom of choice for the consumer," says Jon Risfelt, MD and CEO of Europolitan. "For Europolitan, the agreement means increased traffic in our network, which generates increased revenues and a greater return on our investments in infrastructure and systems. The fact that we can now reach ICA's approximately 3 million card users is of course a major opportunity for us in our capacity as a leading mobile operator." "We are out to strengthen our overall offering to loyal customers by introducing these family and household services and hope that this will make our ICA Customer Card even more attractive. We are delighted with this collaboration with Europolitan. We complement each other very well," says Johan Röhss, Deputy MD of ICA AB. "ICA is planning to offer all customers who hold an ICA Customer Card excellent terms on package solutions that include the whole family's telephony requirements, ranging from the household's fixed telephony to mobile and Internet subscriptions. It is convenient to use the ICA Customer Card for payment purposes and it also offers better control of the family's telephony costs. In addition, customers may be offered ICA Bonus on telephony services as well," says Joakim Säll, who is in charge of ICA's telephony initiative. In connection with today's agreement, Europolitan is forming a new business area for service provisioning. Europolitan has four service provisioning agreements. Europolitan AB is a Swedish GSM operator with a license to build a 3G mobile network. The company's head office is in Karlskrona, Sweden. Europolitan is a leader in the field of technically advanced services. The Europolitan Group comprises the stock market listed parent company Europolitan Holdings AB, as well as the subsidiaries Europolitan AB, Europolitan Stores AB, Ocom AB, Doberman AB and Mobile Relations AB. The Group has around 1,300 employees. ICA is the Nordic region's largest retail trade group with around 4,600 stores, mainly in Sweden and Norway, but also in Denmark and the Baltic countries. Together with Statoil, ICA also owns and runs all the Statoil stations in Scandinavia under the store name ICA Express, amongst others. ICA concluded a 50/50 partnership deal in 2000 with the Dutch company Royal Ahold, which has made ICA part of a world-wide retail trade network. ICA's operations employ around 47,000 people. Please visit www.ica.se For more information, please contact: Anders Sjöholm, Europolitan AB Tel: +46 708 33 10 22, e-mail: anders.sjoholm@europolitan.se Johan Röhss, Deputy MD, ICA AB Tel.: +46 8 585 50 272 Joakim Säll, Manager of ICA's telephony operations, ICA AB Tel.: +46 70 260 16 60 ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by BIT http://www.bit.se The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2001/01/22/20010122BIT00740/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2001/01/22/20010122BIT00740/bit0002.pdf