TeliaSonera introducing advertising on subscribers´ phones

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The telecommunications service provider TeliaSonera is entering the competition for advertising on mobile telephones. At the Mobile 2.0 event in Stockholm on Monday the company announced the introduction of a tools window and advertising space which are to appeaer at the top of its customers' mobile telephone Internet browser screens.
      In addition, the company is making preparations for advertising space at the bottom of the screen. The advertisements, which could be tailored for target groups, would be loaded onto the phone over the Internet.
      TeliaSonera is planning to introduce mobile phone advertising already at the beginning of next year in some Nordic and Baltic Countries. Advertising is to spread to other countries sometime next year, says Kenneth Karlberg, who is responsible for the company's mobile business operations.
     
Yesterday's announcement by TeliaSonera reflects a rapid change in the world of mobile telephony. Spurred on by better telephones and more rapid networks, a larger proportion of consumers are using their devices for purposes other than talking. In addition to e-mail, mobile phones are being used to surf the Internet, play games, and listen to music.
      In Sweden mobile data traffic grew by as much as 50 per cent in late September. A big part of the growth came from the increased mobile data use of computers, but the use of mobile handsets for data and web browsing is also growing rapidly.
      At the same time advertisers are interested in mobile telephones as a way of getting their messages out. Google and Yahoo, which dominate the advertising market on the Internet, are looking for positions on the mobile market.
      Meanwhile, the free operator Blyk, with a Finnish background, has started operations in Britain, and hopes to expand to other countries. Karlberg insists that TeliaSonera is not trying to shut Blyk out of the Nordic market.
     
TeliaSonera is bringing its own tools and advertising line to the web browsers of its present and new customers. With the tools, the customer can establish bookmarks and use a search engine.
      The company has not decided which search engine it will choose, but it is unlikely to be Google, which takes a big chunk of the advertising income from ads that are shown on the page. TeliaSonera itself can also send information to its customers through the advertising feature.
     
TeliaSonera executives would not speculate on Monday how much revenue the new advertising would bring to their company. Karlberg would only say that he expects advertising to prove to bring a "significant flow of income."
      The company also had other announcements. It plans to renew its Surfport mobile portal and to develop a small separate programme out of most of its Internet services, to be installed on the telephones. These kinds of programmes make it easier to watch television by mobile phone, or to download music.
      The service provider has become more active, because telephone manufacturers, with Nokia in the forefront, are also starting to offer services to customers.
     
Like other operators, TeliaSonera pays for subsidises the price of telephones sold along with the subscription. Under such deals, the customer pays less in the initial fee, but the operator later bills more for the use of the subscription.
      Karlberg said that TeliaSonera is not very eager to support the sale of phones whose installed features would bring the operator out of the service loop.


Links:
  TeliaSonera stock exchange release 8.10.2007: TeliaSonera simplifies mobile surfing and launches a new advertisement channel

Helsingin Sanomat