Telia launches new sales company for network services

Telia launches new sales company for network services Telia now hives off the Swedish part of network operations, creating a separate company called Skanova. Already from the start, Skanova will have about 2,500 employees and an estimated turnover of SEK 20 billion. Skanova's CEO will be Marianne Nivert, first vice President of Telia and head of business area Carrier & Networks which includes Skanova and its sister company Telia International Carrier AB, the Satellite Division, and the business units in Denmark and Finland. Management and Board of Directors will be presented later this autumn. Skanova will be wholly owned by Telia and will address two types of customers: other carriers and service providers wishing to enter the Swedish telecom market. They will be offered to buy both network capacity and services from Skanova to market them under their own names. Examples of service providers are many new small entreprises but also major corporations with many customers like insurance companies, power utilities, banks, big chain stores and real estate companies. Most of them apply regular billing, and want to top their offerings with telephony and Internet access to increase customer loyalty. - Through Skanova we will now meet the waves of new actors wishing to launch their own voice and Internet services in Sweden, says Marianne Nivert. Our deregulated telecom market in Sweden has been open to competition since 1993, and Telia's network operations now turned into a company have more and more focussed on wholesale business. Telia prefers to be seen rather as a partner than a competitor by all new actors in the telecom market. According to Marianne Nivert, Telia has sometimes been regarded with a certain suspicion by customers who are also competitors. Creating Skanova will help to define Telia's role in the market more clearly. For more information please contact: Pressofficer Lars Joelsson, Telia Carrier & Networks, +46 8 713 28 07 ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by BIT http://www.bit.se The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/08/16/20000816BIT00560/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/08/16/20000816BIT00560/bit0002.pdf