Sonera Company Interview

When Sonera was founded, it was the first time two previous incumbents in two EU countries merged. Historically however, the companies had already worked together on a number of different projects and complemented each other in various ways.  Sonera is the fifth largest Telecom operator in Europe today and continues building on its pioneering spirit and high technology expertise within both fixed and mobile communications inherited from its predecessors. Sonera is a provider of telecoms services and  in  sales of IT products .

The merger between Telia and Sonera became real in 2002, at the same time  the company and its share changed name to Telia-Sonera.

Telia-Sonera is Based on customer's numbers , he's the major  in Nordic mobile operator markets. The majority of Telia-Soneras revenue  are coming  from Finland and Sweden, in which it is the largest mobile operator in the north of Europe . Telia-Sonera has differents  brands under which it operates in different market areas. For example Telia-Sonera operates in Finland under Sonera brand and in Sweden and Denmark  under Telia brand.  In Norway Telia-Sonera operates under Net Com Brand being there the second largest operator.

Telia-Sonera is also present   in Baltic countries by having shares holding in local mobile operator companies such as AB Lietuvos Telekomas, UAB Omnitel and Latvijais Mobilais Telefons. Telia-Sonera´s indirect and direct interest in total mobile operator business in Baltic is remarkable. Telia-Sonera holds also 49% interest in Baltic fixed line operators such as as  Eesti Telekom and Lattelecom SIA.

Sonera's Market in the world : 

 Sonera is present in 18 countries in the world :

1-Afghanistan

TeliaSonera is a 12.25% stakeholder of the Afghanistan Roshan (telco) cellphone network.

2-Azerbaijan

From May 15, 2010 after Azercell made rebranding, it entered into a network of TeliaSonera.

3-Denmark

In Denmark TeliaSonera operates a mobile operator (Telia).

4-Finland

Sonera is the biggest mobile operator in Finland and also one of the biggest providers of landline telephone and Internet services. TeliaSonera also operates in Finland in the form of another company, Tele Finland Oy, which is a budget mobile operator.

5-Estonia

TeliaSonera owns 100% of Eesti Telekom. Eesti Telekom is one of the largest telecommunication companies in the Baltic countries and the largest telecommunications company in Estonia. TeliaSonera and the Estonian government reached a deal over the sale of Eesti Telekom in September 2009. In  2016, Eesti Telekom switched its name to Telia Eesti.

6-Georgia

Since 2007 TeliaSonera has owned 58.55% of the Geocell company, while Turkcell owns the remaining 41.45%.

7-Kazakhstan

TeliaSonera operates in Kazakhstan under the brand Kcell.

8-Lithuania

TeliaSonera owns 88.15% of Teo LT, the largest landline phone operator in Lithuania, which recently purchased Omnitel, one of largest mobile network operators in Lithuania. It was previously owned by TeliaSonera group.

9-Latvia

TeliaSonera owns 49% of LMT (24.5% as TeliaSonera AB and 24.5% as Sonera Holding B.V.). TeliaSonera also owns 49% of Lattelecom, which owns 23% of LMT, which owns Okarte, Amigo. It also owns 100% of Telia Latvija, a business cable operator and data center operator.

10-Moldova

TeliaSonera owns a 74,3% see-through stake of the Moldovan mobile operator Moldcell through Fintur Holdings.

11-Nepal

TeliaSonera owns majority stake in Ncell, the largest mobile operator in Nepal. However, on December 21, 2015 TeliaSonera has already announced it's exit from Ncell selling its 60.4 percent of the share to Malaysian telecommunications group Axiata.

12-Norway

In Norway Telia first entered after the deregulation in 1998 as a virtual supplier of fixed telephone and Internet services. This was sold to Enitel during the merger attempt with Telenor, but Telia re-entered in 2000 with the purchase of one of the two mobile network operators, NetCom. In 2006 it also bought the virtual mobile provider Chess Communication.

13-Russia

TeliaSonera owns 25.2% of MegaFon, the second largest mobile phone operator in Russia.

14-Spain

TeliaSonera owns 76.6% of Yoigo, the fourth mobile operator in Spain.

15-Sweden

In Sweden, TeliaSonera operates under the consumer brands Telia and Halebop. On the business side, Skanova Access and Cygate are also used.

16-Tajikistan

TeliaSonera owns merge of two operators as Tcell.

17-Turkey

TeliaSonera owns 38% of Turkcell, the leading mobile operator in Turkey. Turkcell owns 80% of BeST in Belarus and 55% of Astelit in Ukraine

18-Uzbekistan

In 5 years, Ucell, the Uzbek subsidiary, has increased the number of its subscribers from 400,000 to 9 million (2012). Meanwhile, TeliaSonera is under preliminary investigation by Swedish prosecutors for allegations of bribery and money laundering associated with the acquisition of their 3G license in Uzbekistan from Takilant Limited, registered in Gibraltar. Under these investigations involving four Uzbek nationals, hundreds of millions of francs have been frozen in Swiss banks.

Product and services :

The product and services which sonera provide are divided in 2 groups first of all we have the B2C (business to customers ) then we have the B2B business to business which is for the  corporates  .

B2C: 

Different products are available for this kind of customers, Sonera provide equipment (computer, mobile phone, print machine, wifi modem, tablet ect ...)  as service he provides also internet at home, phone package limited or unlimited  Tv, ect....)

B2B

Sonera focuses on 3 kinds of companies,  the one with less than 20 employees, less than 250 employees, and the one with more than 250 employees, the services are different from one to another but basically, the services which are provides are mainly, cybersecurity, database, Internet installation, specify application ect.....


Key of success:

A strength marketing, and a good communication  to the customers which give a good feedback.
A large operations of acquisition around the world .
  
Why i chose  this company :

Because this company  have a big potential in the north of Europe and for me i was important to learn about  the company how the work and what kind of products the provides .

Would you like to work in this field in the future:

Yes i would like to work in this field but in  the purchasing or in the sales as a manager  later .

My Visit to Sonera Kokkola:

I went to the agency of Kokkola wich is situate in the down-town close to Halpa Hali and i met  Jenna one of the customer advisor who explain  me the structure of the agency and how it's working .

First of all the have a manager who is the supervisor his responsibility is to apply the policy  and designed by the  holding he also brief the team of  the 4 customers advisor about their respective activity in the agency sales , welcoming customers , propose the different offer that the company have. He makes a report  each period of sales (1-3 month) to have the level of sales (Increase or decrease) for example if the sales are decreasing the active and adapt a new strategy  trough promotion and rewarding best customers to boost the sales for the next period . 

Jenna also  describe me  her activity during  one day , she starts  at 8H and leave at 6h in the evening,  when she comes , she  do the shelf placement then she check the mail  and letters from the offices, to verify all the order that customer trough Internet then  she makes the packages for delivering, and the rest of the day she welcoming customers in the agency  and help them to buy what the really want and need.   I also asked some strategic questions like how many customers the have in kokkola area , and  the turnover that the makes each period of sales but she told me that she could not give me this kind of answers because it's an confidential information about the company or the agency .

Concerning the  Hr Policy , Sonera use to recruit IT engineer and  student from business as customers advisor or manager of agency but the must some basic of Finnish language and be fluent in English, the company also accompany students who are writing a thesis and to apply to job and have a mentor for their thesis the must go on the carrier's website.  http://www.teliasonera.com/en/careers/ 
 
Credit photo 1&2 :  http://www.stanbril.com/5-tips-for-organizing-your-start-up/