Overview
Tele2 started as a telecommunications company in Sweden in the late 1970s by the company Industriförvaltnings AB Kinnevik. In 1981, a mobile phone provider called Comvik started as an alternative mobile phone operator to Telia, now known as TeliaSonera. The cable television provider Kabelvision AB started in 1986. Comvik changed its name to become Comviq when the company got a GSM license in 1988 and started operating in 1992.
In 1991, Sweden's first commercial ISP was started with the Swedish IP Network (SWIPnet, AS1257) by Industriförvaltnings AB Kinnevik, later known as Tele2, and in 1993 with telephone liberalisation in Sweden, Tele2 started to offer international calls.
The three companies of Comviq, Kabelvision, and Tele2 came together as the Tele2 brand on fixed-line services and Comviq on mobile services in Sweden in 1997. International growth came in the form of acquisitions in Estonia, Latvia, Russia & France. Today it serves as a major telephone company in the Nordic and Baltic nations, together as an alternative provider in many others.
Tele2 operates in Austria, Croatia, Estonia, Germany, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, and Sweden.
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