Telia (company)

Telia Company AB

Type	Publicly traded Aktiebolag
Traded as	Nasdaq Stockholm: TLSN
Industry	Telecommunications
Founded	2003; 14 years ago (2003)
Headquarters	Solna, , Sweden
Area served	Europe, Asia
Key people	Johan Dennelind (President and CEO), Marie Ehrling (Chairman)
Products	Tier-1 network provider, mobile network operator, Internet service Provider , Fixed-line communications, IT hosting
Revenue	SEK 101 billion (2014)
Operating income	SEK 22.68 billion (2014)
Profit	SEK 15.60 billion (2014)
Total assets	SEK 272.066 billion (end 2014)
Total equity	SEK 116.36 billion (end 2014)
Owner	Government of Sweden (37.3%) Solidium (Finnish state) (3.2%)
Number of employees	26,166 (end 2014)
Website	teliacompany.com

Telia Company AB is the dominant telephone company and mobile network operator in Sweden and Finland. The company has operations in other countries in Northern and Eastern Europe, and in Central Asia and South Asia, with a total of 182.1 million mobile customers (Q1, 2013). It is headquartered in and its stock is traded on the and on the .

Telia Company 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.

Before privatisation Telia Company was a state telephone monopoly. Sonera on the other hand had a 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 stock, 37% is owned by the Swedish government, 3.2% by the Finnish government, and the rest by institutions, companies, and private investors worldwide.

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 found 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.