TeliaSonera and Microsoft Sign MSN and Windows Live Services Agreement
Exhibit
99.1
TeliaSonera
and Microsoft Sign MSN and Windows Live Services Agreement
STOCKHOLM,
Sweden--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 14, 2006--TeliaSonera will
be
the first operator in the Nordic and Baltic countries to make MSN(R)
Messenger and MSN(R) Hotmail - two of the world's most popular Internet
communication services - available to over eleven million mobile
customers in five countries.
TeliaSonera
and Microsoft have signed a Global Content Agreement establishing
Microsoft as a Premier Content Provider for TeliaSonera's mobile
Internet portal SurfPort. SurfPort was launched in Denmark, Finland,
Norway, Lithuania and Sweden during 2005.
Through
the SurfPort mobile portal, TeliaSonera's users will have easy
access to the mobile versions of the Microsoft communication services.
MSN Hotmail and MSN Messenger will initially be offered and Windows
Live Mail and Windows Live Messenger will follow.
The
agreement will bring together TeliaSonera's over eleven million
mobile subscribers with customers of MSN Hotmail - one of the world's
largest web-based e-mail service with approximately 230 million
active e-mail accounts - and MSN Messenger, the world's most used
free
instant messaging service with approximately 205 million customers
worldwide.
"We
are
very pleased to have such a strong and established content provider
as Microsoft for SurfPort. MSN Messenger and MSN Hotmail are very
popular, especially among young people, and services like these and
Microsoft's new Windows Live services encourage people to start using
their mobile phones for more than just voice calls. We hope to have
these services on SurfPort by this summer", says Xxxxxx Xxxx, CEO and
President, TeliaSonera AB.
"MSN
and
TeliaSonera are working to enhance messaging between mobile
phones and PCs to ultimately deliver a richer experience to customers."
said Xxxxx Xxxxxx, Regional General Manager for MSN EMEA. "By
way
of this agreement, we are expanding our customers' ability to make
smart communication choices and connect instantly via email or IM
to
the
people they care about most."
Through
this agreement with Microsoft, TeliaSonera has established an
alliance with another strong provider and brought a well-known brand
to
SurfPort as it continues its strategy to offer customers a rich
communication experience.
The
agreement sees TeliaSonera first offering MSN Messenger, as a seamless
instant messaging service between PCs and mobile phones, and then
the
new Windows Live Messenger. Through this service, customers will
be
able to see if their contacts are online, exchange messages between
MSN Messenger on a PC and mobile phone and vice versa. Through
this
partnership, both companies expect more frequent interaction between
PC and mobile customers, resulting in more traffic.
MSN
Messenger, MSN Hotmail, Windows Live Messenger, and Windows Live
Mail
will initially be offered free of charge, although the cost for
mobile data traffic will be billed in accordance with the usual rate
for
each country.
TeliaSonera
is the leading telecommunications company in the Nordic
and Baltic regions. At the end of December 2005 TeliaSonera had 19,146,000
mobile customers (69,887,000 incl associated companies) and 7,064,000
fixed telephony customers (7,688,000 incl associated companies)
and 2,263,000 internet customers (2,331,000 incl associated companies).
Outside the home markets TeliaSonera has extensive interests
in the growth markets in Russia, Turkey and Eurasia. TeliaSonera
is listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange and the Helsinki
Stock
Exchange. Net sales January-December 2005 amounted to SEK 87.7 billion.
The number of employees was 28,175.
Forward-Looking
Statements
Statements
made in the press release relating to future status or circumstances,
including future performance and other trend projections
are forward-looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking
statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate
to
events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future.
There can be no assurance that actual results will not differ materially
from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements
due to many factors, many of which are outside the control
of
TeliaSonera.
This
information was brought to you by Waymaker
xxxx://xxx.xxxxxxxx.xxx
CONTACT:
TeliaSonera
Press
Office, x00 (0)0 000 00 00.
