Finland's second-largest telecoms operator, Sonera, changed its name to Telia on Thursday.
The Finnish brands Sonera and Tele Finland have been owned by the Sweden-based Telia Company, which bought Sonera in 2002. That name has been in use in Finland since 1998, replacing the earlier names Telecom Finland and Tele. At the beginning of last year, the conglomerate changed its name from Telia-Sonera to Telia.
Telia's largest owner is the Swedish state, which holds a 37 percent stake. The Finnish state, which owned Sonera and its predecessors going back to the Post and Telegraph Office in the 1920s, still has a three-percent share in Telia.
Telia says that consolidating Sonera, Tele Finland and Telia into one firm will allow to provide customers with a broader array of products and more flexible international usage. It says it will now offer them mobile device coverage throughout the EU and European Economic Area at the same fixed monthly fee.
Customers promised no changes
The firm stresses that customers do not need to take any steps in reaction to Thursday's name change, and that all services and pricing will remain the same.
Besides Finland and Sweden, Telia has subscribers in Norway and Denmark as well as the three Baltic states of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. Last year Telia had a turnover of 8.8 billion euros.
According to the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority, Telia Sonera was Finland's second-largest operator at the end of 2015, trailing behind Elisa and ahead of DNA. At that point Sonera and Tele Finland accounted for 34 percent of Finnish mobile subscriptions and 30 percent of broadband connections.
