The Sonera Also Rises.
Forbes, Dec 27, 1999 p10
Morais, Richard C.
Who has the most advanced telephone company in Europe? Not the Germans, not the Brits, but the Finns. So says Morgan Stanley Dean Witter's 361-page study of Europe's multimedia future. Sonera Corp., the former state-owned telephone company, has revenues of $2 billion and a recent ADS listing on Nasdaq. Per Otto Hyland, a managing director of Credit Suisse First Boston in London, calls Sonera "an undiscovered jewel." <and dh agrees!>
Sonera is still 58% owned by the Finnish government but acts very much like a venture-capital-funded outfit in Silicon Valley. It has 65% of the mobile telecom market in Finland, where 60% of the population, the highest percentage in the world, use cellular phones. It handles 40% of the country's Internet subscriptions.
The result is last year 65% of Sonera's revenues, and more of its earnings stream, came from mobile, new media and other specialized telecom services. The Finnish affinity for cell phones helped Nokia create a $140 billion market value. It's making Sonera into a growth company, too. Revenues for the first half of 1999 were up 18% to $915 million, on which the company enjoyed a net margin of 19% . Sonera's market cap, $29 billion.
Sonera's services offer a glimpse of the future. Pagers have all but disappeared in Finland. Why? In 1995 Sonera offered mobile customers up to 160 characters packaged as a Short Message Service. Today Finnish schoolkids use SMS to pass each other notes in class. Sonera processed 190 million mobile messages in the first half of 1999, up 275% from the previous year.
Behind SMS is a larger corporate strategy: bypass the commodities side of the telephone battle. "We want to be in the value-added services that will be a larger part of mobile offerings in the future," says Kaj-Erik Relander, Sonera's executive vice president and chief financial officer. "That's where the margins will be." <and their gross margins are music to my ears!...speaking of music>...
A Finn can pick out songs on the jukebox in a beer joint, punch a code into his mobile phone, hear the music and see the $1.75 jukebox charge on his next phone bill. He can also charge a Pepsi or a car wash.
Security concerns led the company to restrict this wireless commerce to small transactions. No longer. Sonera was the first operator in the world to launch services for the wireless application protocol phones. The new platform allows for secure wireless e-commerce, and the first commercial applications early next year will make it relatively safe for Finns to bank, trade shares, surf the Net and send sensitive e-mail directly via the WAP mobile phone.
The commercial ramifications are stunning. A Sonera customer can soon enter the giant Stockmann bookstore in Helsinki, browse until he's found a book he wants to buy, then use his mobile phone to buy the book over the Internet at a lower price while still standing in the Stockmann store.
Sonera's overseas forays are whetting the curiosity of Europe's investment bankers. Sonera is investing $930 million in the VoiceStream, Omnipoint and Aerial merger. If it goes through, the new outfit with 1.5 million subscribers will be the U.S.' largest mobile operator using GSM, the dominant technology overseas, and has the potential to reach 200 million Americans. <and dont forget AT&T's GSM foray>
In Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Hungary and Russia, Sonera has picked up stakes in mobile companies cheaply.
But the Finns really struck gold in Turkey. Sonera owns 41% of Turkcell, a fast-growing mobile operator with 4 million subscribers. Turkcell got through the recent earthquake without major disruption, and the company is furiously building operations in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Kazakhstan.
Turkcell will go public early next year. Sonera paid $116 million for its 41% stake; J.P. Morgan Securities values the holding at $7.5 billion.
Sonera's management intends to leverage its international portfolio and service know-how into a seat at the big boys' table. "We want to be the smart partner of choice for those companies with distribution capacity," says Relander. It will probably help if Sonera's soft-spoken president, Aulis Salin, can convince Finnish politicians to reduce the state's holding in the company, as an AT&T or BT is unlikely to be interested until politics is out of the picture.
The prime minister has publicly stated he wants to reduce the state's share of Sonera to zero. In the process, he'd probably make his countrymen wealthier.
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Sonera Chooses Nokia IP Security Products as a Key Component of Its Managed Security Offering.
Business Wire, Dec 7, 1999 p1018
HELSINKI, Finland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--December 7, 1999--
Finnish operator Sonera, will offer virtual private networking and managed firewall services to its business customers, with Nokia's highly integrated IP Security products. Nokia IP Security products tightly integrate Check Point's market-leading security software with the Nokia high performance, high availability IP network appliance providing customers with the industry's best VPN/security appliance solution. This solution will form an essential part of Sonera's managed security offering. Nokia will also provide Sonera with related customer services.
"We are pleased to be supplying Sonera with our leading security solution enabling them to offer next generation data solutions to its customers," said Juhani Koivula, Area General Manager, Nokia Networks. "By choosing Nokia appliances, which are specifically designed for easy, low cost installation and management, Sonera can quickly and cost-effectively begin offering high quality security services."
Sonera will deploy the 3DES encryption licence granted for Nokia IP security product family products in Sonera FireWall and VPN services. The new services include VPN connections of the companies' remote offices and Firewall and VPN service extending to customer facilities.
"Sonera's customers include international organizations that want to leverage the new telecommunications possibilities provided by the Internet. Sonera, a frontrunner in information security services, will provide secure service through the Internet. Rapidly internationalizing and networking companies need reliable information security and authentication services to support their operations," says John Saario, Product Group Manager, Sonera Solutions Ltd.
About Sonera
Sonera is an international frontrunner in mobile, data and media communications, with subsidiaries and associated companies in 14 countries. Sonera is listed both on Helsinki Exchanges (SRA) and on Nasdaq (SNRA). Sonera's vision is to become one of the world's leading mobile-based communications operators providing mobile communications services to which a large selection of content and transaction services are connected. In 1998, Sonera<180>s revenues amounted to USD 1.9 billion and the profit before extraordinary items and taxes was USD 404 million.
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Sonera Strengthens its Messaging Services with Software.com's InterMail Platform.
Business Wire, Nov 10, 1999 p0408
HELSINKI, Finland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 9, 1999--
Sonera (Nasdaq:SNRA), the leading telecommunications company in Finland, announced today the enhancement of its email platform for Sonera Internet subscriptions for consumer customers and the launch of Sonera BusinessMail, an outsourced email system for SMEs and other organizations.
Both systems are now based on Software.com's InterMail(R) software, the first messaging platform to enable service providers like Sonera to offer differentiated consumer, business and WebMail messaging services within a single architecture. Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Software.com (Nasdaq:SWCM) is a leading developer of carrier-scale Internet infrastructure applications.
"Software.com's InterMail software provides a high-quality platform for email systems that enables us to offer a number of value-added services to our customers," said vice president Petri Lahtinen. "Software.com was selected as our partner because of its breadth and depth of experience and the reliability and scalability of its InterMail messaging software platform."
One of the most significant features of Software.com's InterMail software is the possibility of remote access. Email messages can be read safely from anywhere in the world via a WebMail user interface. In addition, email messages can be routed to a mobile phone and special services, such as sending short messages via email or sending and receiving faxes, can be included in the system. Sonera currently offers outbound short messaging services (SMS) via Software.com's InterMail platform, and additional wireless and unified messaging functionality is planned for future release.
"We are pleased to be partnering with a global forerunner in mobile, media and data communications," said John MacFarlane, founder and CEO of Software.com. "By bundling robust, high-quality messaging services into its offerings, Sonera will continue to be a significant player in the U.S. and European wireless and value-added IP services markets."
Outsourced email solutions are particularly well-suited to companies that do not want to purchase new software and hardware or put additional resources into system maintenance. With Sonera's outsourced email solution, a company's email boxes will be located on Sonera's server.
"Outsourcing select IT services is a good way of improving a company's performance," said Lahtinen. "By purchasing services that do not fall within a company's core business allows it to concentrate its resources on the areas that derive the most benefits."
Additional features of Sonera's enhanced email system include round-the-clock availability and maintenance, reliability, information security, and the opportunity to access email from anywhere in the world. With Sonera's enhanced email system, backups are made several times a day.
In addition to being used by all of Sonera's consumer Internet users today, the enhanced email system is currently in use in a project dubbed "South Karelia Toward Information Society" spearheaded by the Regional Council of South Karelia and Lappeenranta University of Technology in Finland.
The purpose of the project is to boost high-tech business in South Karelia and to ensure the province's strong position in tomorrow's European information society. The South Karelian information network, which is to be built for the use of the region's municipalities, schools and health care district, will be one of the most extensive regional network solutions in Finland.
About Software.com
Founded in 1993, and with over 56 million seats licensed, Software.com is a leader in carrier-scale, Internet infrastructure applications for service providers. Built on native Internet standards and proven in real-world deployments to be scalable, highly reliable, available and manageable, Software.com's products and services are specifically designed to enable service providers to market Internet based services to businesses and consumers.
Customers comprise many of the largest service providers worldwide, including: Excite@Home, Ameritech Interactive Media Services, AT&T Canada, AT&T WorldNet(R) Service, Bell Atlantic Internet Service, GTE Internetworking Services, Hongkong Telecom/Cable & Wireless, Pacific Internet, PSINet, Sprint PCS, Road Runner, Telecom Italia Net, TeleKom Malaysia, Telecom New Zealand and Tele Danmark. Software.com also has established strategic relationships with Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Telcordia Technologies, Inc. (formerly Bellcore), in order to further develop, market and sell its messaging solutions.
With headquarters in Santa Barbara, the company maintains offices throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia. Software.com can be reached in the U.S. at 805/882-2470 or software.com.
About Sonera
Sonera (Nasdaq:SNRA) is Finland's leading telecommunications company with subsidiaries and associated companies in 14 countries. Internationally, Sonera is a forerunner in the rapidly growing business areas of mobile, data and media communications. In 1998, Sonera's revenues amounted to USD 1.9 billion and the profit before extraordinary items and taxes USD 404 million. The Group employs approximately 9,000 people.
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A bit more info on Sonera
Locations
Teollisuuskatu 15, PO Box 106
00510 Helsinki, Finland
Phone: +358-20401
Fax: +358-2040-2032
Sonera Group operates primarily in Finland, but also has stakes in operations in Azerbaijan, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Georgia, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, Turkey, the US.
Selected Products & Operations
1998 Sales
% of total
Mobile communications 49
Domestic voice service 15
Data & media communications 14
International voice service 8
Equipment 6
Other 8
Total 100
Selected Services:
Data, Voice, and Internet
Calling Cards
FaxPlus (fax sending and receiving product).
Freephone (toll-free customer calling for businesses)
MultiFax (fax broadcasting service
Sonera Application Server (Web hosting service)
Sonera Contact Center (answering service)
Sonera DataNet (LAN based on Frame Relay and Asynchronous transfer mode)
Sonera FastNet (managed enterprise network package)
Sonera Firewall (data security product)
Sonera Internet
Sonera iNTRA (Integrated intranet and extranet services.)
Sonera Live (audio and video over the Internet and intranets)
Split Rate (customer feedback service)
Telephone Conference
Vipgate IVPN (International service for business's internal division)
Telecom Equipment
Keytelephones systems
mobile phones
PABX (private automatic branch exchange) systems
terminals
E-commerce
Sonera TradeXpress (e-commerce software platform)
Satellite Service
Satellite news gathering (real-time transmission via EUTALSAT and INTELSAT)
Selected Subsidiaries and Affiliates:
Mobile Phone Operators
Aerial Operating Co., Inc. (19%, US)
AS Eesti Mobiiltelefon (25%, Estonia)
AS Eesti Telefon (25%, Estonia)
Data-Info Oy
Infonet Finland Oy (90%)
Latvijas Mobilais Telefons SIA (25%, Latvia)
Pannon GSM Rt. 23%, Hungary)
Sonera Ltd
Sonera Solutions Ltd
Sonera Sverige AB (Sweden)
Sonera Systems Ltd
Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri A.S. (41%, Turkey)
UAB Omnitel (28%, Lithuania) |
