5G promises before summer – E24

– This will be a significant revenue stream this year, Telia Norway CEO Stein-Erik Vellan tells E24.

In Telia’s quarterly report, it appears that a few weeks after launch, the company has secured more than 1,000 customers in what is called home broadband mobile, or “Fixed Wireless Access” in the industry language. .

E24 wrote last weekend about the ongoing industry war, where new technology has mobilized telecommunications companies to fight for so-called “copper customers” to Telenor.

Namely, Telenor is going to put aside the more than 100-year-old technology that has provided a landline phone and, finally, the Internet. Fiber broadband is here, or the mobile broadband for the home where fiber isn’t worth building. Initially, it occurs over the 4G network and soon over 5G.

– We see a very good customer input around this product and it is placed directly against the disconnected copper grill. With the topography and geography of Norway, it is a very good alternative for many, says Vellan.

Do you want to tie Telia and get together?

In March, Telenor had insured some 30,000 customers for its solution, which they began selling in the spring of last year. Both companies expect more players to establish competitive offers over time.

Which may seem a little small compared to the “big brother” at Fornebu rejecting CFO Per Christian Mørland before E24 once asks the question:

– Any new client with us in this product is a net advantage, because they are not the clients that we have had before. Telenor’s numbers are the customers who have had and receive the new technology, says Mørland.

Telia charges between NOK 599 and 999 per month for the solution. Last summer, there were 450,000 copper customers in Norway, according to the National Communications Authority.

Telia will not disclose its sales targets publicly, but if the company receives 100,000 of these over the long term at an average price of NOK 799 per month, it will generate revenue of around $ 240 million in the quarter.

This corresponds to sales growth of just over seven percent in the company’s Norwegian sales of 3.35 billion in the first quarter.

– You launched mobile broadband under the Telia brand. Does that mean the name Get will disappear?

– Starting today, we enjoy the fact that we have several brands on the Norwegian market. We have introduced a “browsing guarantee” for Get customers to receive mobile data in the event of loss and in the future we will see more and more services linking Telia and meeting in the private market.

Does not postpone 5G

Deployment of mobile home broadband service is currently taking place at selected locations in Norway and it is appreciated that the 4G network in the relevant direction has sufficient capacity to handle customers using the network as if it were a fixed broadband.

However, with 5G, this problem largely disappears because network capacity increases dramatically. 5G is the term for the next generation of mobile networks to be rolled out in Norway now, with more speed, a much faster response time on the network and the opportunity to share the network on separate channels with different users.

To use the 5G network, both cell phones and broadband home modems must be replaced.

– Telenor launched 5G in March in some parts of the country. He promised a 5G launch this spring and promised to have national coverage by 2023. Will it be postponed due to the crown?

– We are still on the plan we launched earlier, says Director of Communications Henning Lunde.

Telia Norway CEO Stein-Erik Vellan adds that he sees 5G as another opportunity for Norwegian society to function in the best possible way, given the dependence we have all had on telecommunications networks during the pandemic.

“We are also significantly strengthening our 4G network in the 5G development process,” says Vellan.

Although the corona virus has resulted in the 500 customer service employees in Trondheim, as well as most other employees, having to sit in the home office, the head of Telia is satisfied with the way the company and The organization have faced the crisis that has affected society.

– Have you had any problems with the operation and installation of the network?

– Operation and bug fixes have worked mainly fine. In customer service they have been given an additional burden, but it has worked well after all, Vellan says and continues:

“This has not affected our delivery of Ericsson,” says the manager of Telia Norge, referring to the provider of the 5G network that the company is building in Norway.

Loss of television income, kidnapping of commercial customers

Although the telecommunications industry is relatively protected from the crown crisis compared to declining revenues for tourism brands and other industries, it is also applied in some places.

– Roaming (revenues from mobile use of customers abroad, newspaper note) will be an important element for the entire industry. We saw something in the first quarter, but there will be more in the future. In other areas, we have positive effects on the crown situation that will offset some of the pressure, explains the CFO.

Telia announced in March that this year the TV and media unit will have a gross operating profit of between zero and 500 million Swedish kroner, compared to 1.5 billion last year, a drop of at least one billion. The company has also announced that the loss of revenue from advertising and sporting events on television (with associated sales of television packages) will result in a billion cash flow.

– Does this reduction in group income have anything to do with your investment forecasts in Norway?

– I do not guide the investment budget through the media, but much of what has been lost from income is what is called premium sports. We have seen this lapse in giving our customers a wider range of other channels and content, says Vellan.

“We maintain the level of activity in Norway and our will to invest and the strategy are maintained as before,” adds the CFO.

Accounts show that Telia Norway experienced a decrease in average broadband revenue per customer per month from NOK 243 to 236, and from NOK 304 to 294 on TV. On mobile devices, however, average earnings grew from NOK 247 to NOK 256 per month.

Although earnings per TV customer declined, Vellan said there was “little growth” in the number of TV customers.

– What’s interesting about TV & Media is also that TV viewing has increased, he says.

On the mobile side, the development that has characterized Telia Norway continues for a time: The company is losing mobile customers in the private market, but it is gaining a large customer base with large investment in the corporate market.

– We continued our growth of Arpu on mobile devices (average revenue per customer per month, journal entry) and we have seen a significant increase in the corporate market with 15,000 new users. We see that we are taking market shares there, ”says Vellan, concluding with the following about developments in the low-price segment in the private market:

– We have also seen net growth in mobile clients on OneCall in the last 15 months.