In 2008, Tele2 had a problem: Public procurement.

Today, that seems ridiculous – but then it was different. During the year Tele2 was invited to several tenders at most. Their competitors ultimately provided services to the public sector, often at above-market prices.

Even worse, competitors diverted the revenues from the public sector to capture more commercial customers.

Tele2 was simply not invited to tender, or the number of tenders was very low. In 2006, Tele2 was invited to 29 tenders; in 2007, to 69. According to current legislation, Tele2 could have received up to 2, 000.

As such, Tele2 wasn’t just missing out on income from public procurement, but also losing ground in other service areas.

What to do?

Introduce clear competition, of course. And then win.

It took a couple of years – but we did it. We fought in the media and fought in the offices of politicians and institutions. We proposed, invited, called and argued our way through.

Finally, we succeeded as now Tele2 owns about 50% of the public sector subscribers – and approximately the same as in the private sector.

That’s a good example of how communication enables fair competition and income.