3G Wireless Licence in Finland to End

Europe : Tele2 AB, ("Tele2") announced that, based on the current competitive and regulatory environment in Finland, it has decided to discontinue its operations in Finland.

Tele2 intends to stop marketing its mobile and fixed telephony services in the Finnish market. In conjunction with this decision, the company has also decided to end the process regarding its 3G license in Finland. The administration of Tele2's existing Finnish customers will be transferred to Sweden.

Lars-Johan Jarnheimer ( inset ), CEO of Tele2 said; "Given the current market environment, we see better opportunities elsewhere. It is of course unfortunate that we need to end our operations in Finland, which began in 2000. However, we still are not able, for example, to sell local calls there. Given this situation, we have decided to end any further marketing investments in Finland."

Tele2 is Europe's leading alternative telecom operator. Tele2 always strives to offer the market's best prices. With our unique values, we provide cheap and simple telecom for all Europeans every day. We have 29.4 million customers in 25 countries. We offer products and services in fixed and mobile telephony, Internet access, data networks, cable TV and content services. Our main competitors are the former government monopolies. Tele2 was founded in 1993 by Jan Stenbeck and has been listed on Stockholmsborsen since 1996. In 2004 we had operating revenue of SEK 43 billion and reported a profit (EBITDA) of SEK 6.6 billion.