Tele2 AB is a Swedish telecommunications operator headquartered in the Kista Science City, Stockholm, Sweden. It is a major telephone operator in Sweden, Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Tele2 also has a 25% share in T-Mobile Netherlands. As of 7 September 2021, Tele2 and Deutsche Telekom have opted to rid themselves of T-Mobile Netherlands in a sale for an enterprise value of €5.1 billion. Tele2 started as a telecommunications company in Sweden in 1993 by the company Investment AB Kinnevik. It previously operated in many other markets but the company has since divested its licences, sold to other operators or to management buy-outs in those markets. History In 1981, a mobile phone provider called Comvik started as an alternative mobile phone operator to Televerket (today known as Telia Company). The cable television provider Kabelvision AB started in 1986. Comvik changed its name to become Comviq when the company got a GSM license in 1988 and started operating in 1992. In 1991, Sweden's first commercial ISP was started with the Swedish IP Network (Swipnet (sv), AS1257) by Investment AB Kinnevik, later renamed as Tele2, and in 1993 with telephone liberalisation in Sweden, Tele2 started to offer international calls. The three companies of Comviq, Kabelvision, and Tele2 came together as the Tele2 brand on fixed-line services and Comviq on mobile services in Sweden in 1997. The Swipnet branding was phased out in 2014. International growth came in the form of acquisitions in Estonia,Lithuania, Latvia, Russia and France. In November 2018, Tele2 was merged with telecom operator Com Hem, which delivers, among other things, TV, broadband and telephony. In March 2019, it was stated that millions of mobile answers (voicemail) could be intercepted by others. At the beginning of 2020, the streaming service Comhem Play+ was launched available to those who are not a customer at Com Hem. The same week, the new digital operator Penny was also launched. Divestments Tele2's most recent development has been to realign its geographic footprint towards Eastern Europe and the Nordic region focusing on own infrastructure based operations which provide higher growth options and possibly better margins for the future. One area of notable success has been the growth of the mobile Internet broadband connectivity. Tele2 has achieved the most success in Russian market, with a customer base increasing by the hundreds of thousands yearly. In 2007 the company sold its holdings in Belgium to Dutch operator