Operators Elisa and Tele2 Group forged a collaboration intended to widen the reach of their respective enterprise offers across the Nordics, a move which steps up competition with regional rivals Telia and Telenor.

In a joint statement Finland-based Elisa and Sweden headquartered Tele2 said the partnership would allow pan-Nordic companies to have a single partner for fixed, mobile and enterprise services covering the region.

Tele2 director for large enterprises Fredrik Stenberg said the companies could together become a “very strong and attractive player in the Nordic telecom market”.

Both have existing partnerships with enterprises and operators outside of their mobile markets to widen the scopes of their B2B services.

Cold war
The Nordics is a hugely competitive market dominated by operator groups Telenor and Telia.

In Finland, Elisa is locked in a battle for supremacy with Telenor-owned DNA: GSMA Intelligence figures showed the pair had 4.3 million and 4.6 million connections, respectively, at end-Q4 2019, with both ahead of third-placed Telia 3.1 million.

Tele2’s largest operation is in Sweden where it had 6.05 million connections at end-December 2019, broadly on par with Telia (6.13 million) and well behind market leader Telenor (15.4 million).

Telenor and Telia have large operations in Norway and Denmark, where Elisa and Tele2 do not have a presence (the latter sold its Norway operation to Telia in 2015), while none of the quartet operate in Iceland, the Nordic region’s smallest mobile market.