NEW YORK, Jan. 9, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- Tele2 AB ("Tele2," "the Group") (Nasdaq:TLTOA) (Nasdaq:TLTOB) and (Stockholm:TEL2A) (Stockholm:TEL2B), the leading alternative pan-European telecommunications company, today announced that its Swedish mobile operator, Comviq, now has over 3 million customers. Comviq is continuing to grow faster than its two main competitors, and had a market share of over 50% of new mobile customers in the first three quarters of 2002.
"The sales of new subscriptions and pre-paid cards in the run up to Christmas were better than expected. We also had excellent offers during the Christmas period, for example, we launched our lowest ever fee per minute for evenings and weekends," said Fredrik Berglund, CEO of Tele2 Sweden.
With over two million pre-paid customers, Comviq is indisputably the largest pre-paid operator in Sweden and also in the private market.
"Our strategy always to be price leading and to adjust our offering to the Swedish mobile users' various needs, has proven to be very successful," said Fredrik Berglund.
Tele2 AB, formed in 1993, is the leading alternative pan-European telecommunications company offering fixed and mobile telephony, data network and Internet services under the brands Tele2, Tango and Comviq to 16.5 million people in 21 countries. Tele2 operates Datametrix, which specializes in systems integration, 3C Communications, operating public pay telephones and public Internet services; Transac, providing billing and transaction processing service; C(3), offering co-branded pre-paid calling cards and IntelliNet and Optimal Telecom, the price-guaranteed residential router device. The Group offers cable television services under the Kabelvision brand name and together with MTG, owns the Internet portal Everyday.com. The Company is listed on the Stockholmsborsen, under TEL2A and TEL2B, and on the Nasdaq Stock Market under TLTOA and TLTOB.
This press release may contain certain "forward-looking statements" with respect to our expectations and plans, strategy, management's objectives, future performance, costs, revenues, earnings and other trend information. It is important to note that our actual results in the future could differ materially from those anticipated in forward-looking statements depending on various important factors. Please refer to the documents we have filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission under the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including our most recent annual report on Form 20-F, for a discussion of certain of these factors.
All forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to us on the date hereof. All written or oral forward-looking statements attributable to Tele2 AB, any Tele2 AB members or persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the factors referred to above. We do not intend to update these forward-looking statements.
CONTACTS
Lars-Johan Jarnheimer Telephone: + 46 8 562 640 00 President and CEO, Tele2 AB Andrew Best Telephone: + 44 20 7321 5022 Investor enquiries Visit us at our homepage: http://www.Tele2.com This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net The following files are available for download: www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2003/01/09/20030109BIT00220/wkr0001.doc www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2003/01/09/20030109BIT00220/wkr0002.pdf