Comviq

Comviq (originally Comvik) is a Swedish prepaid mobile phone brand, fully owned by Tele2 and operating in Tele2s network. The original Comvik operation is the predecessor to two listed companies: Tele2 and Millicom.

The company was established in Sweden as Comvik in 1981 as an attempt to break the existing monopoly at the time. During the 1980s, investor Jan Stenbeck's strategy was to pursue, break up and create alternatives to the existing Swedish monopolies in service sectors including telephony and media. In the late 1970s Mr Stenbecks Investment AB Kinnevik started to buy a number of smaller companies in and Gothenburg that operated manual communication networks for car based equipment. Through an operator the driver could reach the public telephone network. Eventually these companies were merged and rebranded AB Företagstelefon in Stockholm. In parallel – and in the quiet – the plans were more ambitious. Completely new equipment was purchased, new telephone terminals were developed and then in 1981 Kinnevik launched Comvik. One of the world’s first automatic analogue mobile telephony networks, a few months ahead of the Swedish Telecom (Televerket) deployment of its NMT network.

Since Swedish Telecom had a monopoly on telecommunications and the radio spectrum, a conflict arose between Televerket and Comvik. After many very public arguments where Televerket even threatened to disconnect Comvik from the public telephone network, the new non-socialistic government gave Comvik permission to continue and expand to a limited extent. Comvik asked for and got a few more frequencies. Finally Comvik had 27 frequencies. Televerkets NMT system had 180 frequencies. Comvik had to expand into cell-based technology that today forms the basis of mobile telephony. The Swedish-based Ericsson sold no equipment to Comvik who instead had to develop the technology themselves using a mixture of suppliers. Comvik built up a customer base of 20,000 subscribers. In order to compete with Televerket they had a lower per-minute rate and offered free calls on evenings and weekends. Comvik also launched several value added services aiming at small businesses.

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Wikipedia