t2 (formerly Tele2 Russia) is the third largest
telecommunications company
A telecommunications company is a kind of electronic communications service provider, more precisely a telecommunications service provider (TSP), that provides telecommunications services such as telephony and data communications access. Many t ...
in
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
, originally founded by
Swedish Tele2
Tele2 AB is a provider of mobile and fixed connectivity, telephony, data network services, TV, streaming and global Internet of things services, amongst others, to consumers and enterprises. It is headquartered in Kista Science City, Stockholm, ...
.
[Шведский телекоммуникационный холдинг Tele2]
/ref> Since 2020, Tele2 Russia is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rostelecom
Rostelecom (Ростелеком) is Russia’s largest provider of digital services for a wide variety of consumers, households, private businesses, government and municipal authorities, and other telecom providers.
Rostelecom interconnects all ...
. As of Q3 2024, t2 provides wireless
Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information (''telecommunication'') between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided transm ...
services to more than 48 million subscribers.
As of March 2025, T2 is present in 70 subjects of Russia. t2 Russia functions as a group of companies, and the parent structure of the holding is named Limited Liability Company "T2 RTK Holding"[«Ростелеком» и Tele2 Россия создали «Т2 РТК Холдинг»]
/ref> with the headquarters in Moscow
Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
.[Tele2 арендовал 13 тыс. кв м офисов в Comcity и разместит там свою штаб-квартиру]
/ref>[Как работают в Tele2]
/ref>
History
The history of the company began in the 1990s when the American-Swedish Millicom International Cellular established mobile network operators which provided D-AMPS
Digital AMPS (D-AMPS), most often referred to as TDMA, is a second-generation ( 2G) cellular phone system that was once prevalent throughout the Americas, particularly in the United States and Canada since the first commercial network was deploy ...
services in various regions of Russia. In 2001 Millicom sold its Russian assets to the Swedish holding Tele2, which started implementing GSM
The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a family of standards to describe the protocols for second-generation (2G) digital cellular networks, as used by mobile devices such as mobile phones and Mobile broadband modem, mobile broadba ...
services in its networks and moved them to their own brand.
Tele2 started operations in Russia in 2003. Within the first two years of operation in the Russian market (2003–2004) Tele2 started providing services in 12 regions. In 2011 the number of Tele2 users exceeded 20 million.
On March 27, 2013 it was announced that the Swedish group Tele2 decided to sell its Russian subsidiary Tele2 Russia to the VTB Group.[ВТБ покупает Tele2 Россия]
/ref> On April 4 the deal was completed.[Группа ВТБ приобретает 100 % бизнеса компании Теле2 в России]
/ref>[Tele2 AB продаёт российский бизнес группе ВТБ]
/ref>
On October 17, 2013 the VTB Group closed the selling of 50% of Tele2 Russia shares to a consortium of private investors holding the Rossiya Bank
The Rossiya Bank (Bank Rossiya (), in Russian: Акционерный коммерческий банк Россия, АКБ Россия) is a Russian joint stock bank founded on June 27, 1990. The company's headquarters are in Saint Petersburg ...
, including Yury Kovalchuk (the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Rossiya Bank) and Alexei Mordashov
Alexey Alexandrovich Mordashov (; born 26 September 1965) is a Russian businessman. He is the main shareholder and chairman of Severstal, Russia's largest steel and mining company.
As of 2025, he is the wealthiest man in Russia with an estimate ...
(the Severstal
Severstal () is a Russian company mainly operating in the steel and mining industry, headquartered in Cherepovets. Severstal is listed on the Moscow Exchange and LSE and is the largest steel company in Russia. The company is majority-owned and ...
co-owner), and also 5% of the shares were sold to Sogaz insurance group.[ВТБ закрыл сделку по продаже 50 % акций «Tele2 Россия»]
/ref>[ВТБ продаёт 50 % акций Теле2 Россия]
/ref>[Страховая группа СОГАЗ в октябре 2013 года купила 5 % оператора сотовой связи Tele2]
/ref>
On February 6, 2014 Rostelecom and Tele2 Russia signed a framed agreement on integration of mobile assets into the ownership capital of the joint venture (JV) T2 Rus Holding. This deal resulting in creation of a new federal high roller on the cellular market was completed within a year. According to the terms of the agreement, Rostelecom transferred its assets to the JV and became one of the stakeholders of the merged company. The joint venture was created on the basis of T2 Rus Holding (later renamed into T2 RTK Holding[), which owns all the operating companies of Tele2 Russia.
On March 28, 2014 the first stage of the deal on integration of Rostelecom mobile assets and creation of a new federal cell operator was completed.][Tele2 и «Ростелеком» завершили первый этап создания СП]
/ref>[Tele2 и «Ростелеком» объявляют о закрытии первого этапа сделки]
/ref> Seven Rostelecom subsidiaries — Sky Link, Nizhny Novgorod Communications, Baikalvestcom, BIT, Volgograd GSM, ETK and AKOS-came under the operational and financial control of Tele2 Russia. Tele2 Russia also gained operational control over Rostelecom's mobile integrated assets (Eline GSM, Tambov GSM, Uralsvyazinform, Dalsvyaz) through RT-Mobile, an affiliate of Rostelecom, established on April 1, 2014. As a result, Rostelecom became the joint venturer with a share in the authorized capital of 45% in votes and 26% of economic share.
On August 5, 2014 earlier than scheduled, Rostelecom completed the second and final stage of the deal with Tele2 Russia to create a new federal mobile operator, having transferred 100% of the shares of its affiliate RT-Mobile to the joint venture (JV). As part of the reorganization, Rostelecom's integrated mobile assets were allocated to RT-Mobile and also the licenses were reissued for the company. The deal resulted in transfer of all Rostelecom's mobile assets to the JV. Consequently, Rostelecom became the joint venturer with a share in the authorized capital of 45% in votes and 45% of economic share, and Tele2 Russia represented by the newly established T2 RTK Holding gained a share in the authorized capital of 55% in votes and 55% of economic share, meaning that Tele2 Russia took control over the joint venture. Thus, it was the completion of creation of a national mobile operator with a wide range of licenses and frequencies throughout the country (including 3G and LTE
LTE may refer to:
Science and technology
* LTE (telecommunication) (Long-Term Evolution), a mobile telephony standard
** LTE Advanced, an enhancement
** LTE Advanced Pro, a further enhancement
* Compaq LTE, a line of laptop computers
* Leukotrie ...
), which was present in 64 regions and had a significant share of 16% on the cellular market, provided by more than 38 million mobile subscribers.[«Ростелеком» и Tele2 создали нового федерального оператора]
/ref>
On June 16, 2015 the mobile operator completed their corporate restructuring by associating 33 operational companies of the holding to its main structure T2 Mobile. The restructuring neither required financial contributions nor left jobcut behind it. As a result, the number of legal bodies within the structure of Tele2 Russia was fairly reduced. The parent company is T2 RTK Holding, and its wholly owned subsidiary Т2-Mobile undertakes business operations under the “Tele2” brand.[Tele2 сжалась в кулак]
/ref>
On February 12, 2020 Rostelecom entered into a legally binding agreement on purchasing of 55% of T2 RTK Holding shares with VTB Bank and a consortium of investors. The settlement and transfer of ownership as part of the 100%-share consolidation transaction was completed on March 16, 2020.
On September 4, 2024, the company rebranded and changed its name to "t2".
Tele2 logo.svg, Logo until September 4, 2024
T2 (Tele2) logo 2024.svg, Logo since September 4, 2024
Ownership
Since February 2020 the company is 100% owned by Rostelecom.
Up until February 2020 each of the shareholders of T2RTK Holding had the right of preemption of the operator’s share. This rule was rooted in the holding’s Charter and it meant that if any of the owners received a proposal to sell his stake in total or partially, another owner could buy the stock at the price of the proposal within 30 days since the moment the third party claiming for purchase made the share sale offer.
In March 2019 it got about that Rostelecom would become the sole owner of Tele2 Russia, increasing its equity stake up to 100%. The information about it came up in January, and in February the Federal Agency for State Property Management (Rosimushchestvo) gave resolution to increase the share of the state-owned company.
On March 12, 2019 it was announced that agreements on consolidating 100% of Tele2 Russia by Rostelecom were reached. It is specified that Rostelecom plans to preserve the brand and management of the company. According to Rostelecom's President Mikhail Oseevsky: Tele2 Russia has a strong team which proved successful with their results.
On February 12, 2020 Rostelecom received 100% of T2 RTK Holding. 17.5% of Tele2 shares was bought with own funds of the public operator; 27.5% was funded by the additional issue of Rostelecom shares in benefit of VTB, a further 10% was an exchange for 10% of its own common stock owned by its subsidiary Mobitel. On March 16, 2020 the settlement and ownership transfer as part of the 100%-share consolidation transaction was completed.
Operations
t2 in Russia is a mobile network operator providing services under the standards GSM, 3G and LTE. Before it was sold to VTB, it had been the only foreign company successfully operating on the Russian cellular market. Until 2013, Russia for Tele2 AB was the major market, which, as of 2010, provided more than a half of subscribers in total and 34.7% (the biggest percentage among all the countries) of EBITDA
A company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (commonly abbreviated EBITDA, pronounced ) is a measure of a company's profitability of the operating business only, thus before any effects of indebtedness, state-mandat ...
.
In March 2020 the company reported on financial and operational results for 2019. As compared to 2018, Tele2 Russia revenue rose 14% to 163,3 billion roubles, at year-end 2019, the net profit totaled 6,6 billion roubles, the EBITDA increased by 50% and amounted to 65,6 billion roubles. As of December 31, 2019, the Tele2 Russia subscriber base counted 44.6 million people which is 5,3% more than in 2018. The average revenue per user (ARPU) also increased by 8,3% to 305 roubles.[
According to the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor), in 2018, Tele2 demonstrated the best result of the LTE networks development rate within the sector, having doubled the number of LTE cell sites.][Tele2 подвела итоги 2015 года: абонентская база оператора в Москве составила 1,266 миллиона человек]
/ref>
Lifestyle enabler
Originally, Tele2 Russia just like the Swedish company positioned itself as a discounter, accentuating the lowest price within the market. In 2016 the company made a decision to move beyond and developed a new strategy named Lifestyle enabler.[Tele2 дала обет молчания]
/ref>
The model Lifestyle enabler means that Tele2 Russia supports its clients’ interests in all areas of life. Within the frames of this strategy, the operator creates services beyond the telecom industry in partnership with other business sectors. So that, in 2017 they launched a joint service with the Clouty online platform, which is an aggregator of online retailers.[Роскомнадзор выяснил, что Tele2 быстрее всех строит LTE-сети в отрасли]
// Байкал Инфо, 7 декабря 2018 In June 2018 a digital medicine project – an application allowing to get a telemedical advice - was launched in partnership with the company Doc+.[Tele2 больше не будет дискаунтером]
«Ведомости
( rus, Ведомости, p=ˈvʲedəməsʲtʲɪ, ) is a Russian language, Russian-language business journalism, business daily newspaper published in Moscow.
History
was founded in 1999 as a joint venture between Dow Jones and Company, Dow ...
», 16 июня 2016 Among the other programs of the operator, there is an affiliate loyalty program with cashback to a mobile account, taxi services (joint service with Gett
GT GETTAXI (UK) LIMITED, commonly referred to as Gett and previously known as GetTaxi, is an Israeli B2B Ground Transportation Management (GTM) platform and marketplace, and B2C ride-hailing app headquartered in London, and owned by GT GetTax ...
).[Первый модный сервис на базе мобильных услуг запустили в России]
«Петрозаводск говорит», 22 июня 2017
In October 2017 Tele2 Russia started a loyalty program named “Bolshe” (En: More) which was intended for subscribers’ personal preferences. The operator offered to the customers an opportunity to save by two ways: either with the use of cashback or with discounts for partners’ goods and services.
When choosing the cashback, a subscriber can get up to 40% of a product's cost to his mobile account. The money can be spent for mobile services or mobile commerce “Payments and transfers”. Any Tele 2 Russia subscriber, except for corporate plans users, can participate in the loyalty program. The program's partners include Yandex, Shokoladnitsa, AliExpress, Kino.Mail and others.[Tele2 запускает программу лояльности «Больше»]
Lenta.ru, 30 октября 2017
Communication platform “Other Rules”
In the beginning of 2017 the operator presented a new communication strategy for 2017—2021. The new concept involves an emphasis on innovative products that reflect the preferences of subscribers and support their lifestyle, and on excellent customer. The launch of the strategy was accompanied by the change of the corporate identity and slogan of the company.[''Дмитрий Степанов'']
Tele2 запустил мобильную «клинику в смартфоне»
C-News, 22 июня 2018 The new slogan sounds like “Tele2. Other rules”.
New opportunities were announced at the strategy presentation: possibility to transfer the unused minutes and internet traffic to the next month. This new feature, unique for the Russian market, demonstrates the ideology of the new platform creating visibility and advantages for subscribers.[ In October 2017, also first-ever on the Russian communications market, an additional feature was introduced – exchange of minutes to gigabytes.][Tele2 провела год по другим правилам]
Ассоциация менеджеров России / Новости членов ассоциации, 09 января 2018
On September 25, 2019 Tele2 Russia launched one-of-a-kind on the Russian telecom-market platform ‘Tele2 Exchange’. This service allows subscribers from all over the country to post offers for sale of unemployed minutes and Gigabytes from their plan package and backward to buy them from a number of lots posted at the Exchange.[Tele2 вышла на биржу]
vc.ru, 25 сентября 2019 The money from the sales goes to the mobile account and the subscriber can spend it to pay for the telecom services. Within the first month after the launch the service was used by 2.5 million people.[Tele2 вышла на биржу]
tdaily.ru, 30 октября 2019
eSIM
On April 29, 2019 Tele2 was the first in Russia to present an opportunity to switch over to eSIM
An eSIM (embedded SIM) is a form of SIM card that is embedded directly into a device as software installed onto a eUICC chip. First released in March 2016, eSIM is a global specification by the GSMA that enables remote SIM provisioning; end ...
in Moscow and Moscow region.[Тач Банк совместно с Tele2 выпустил кобрендовую карту «Другие правила»]
ИА Banki.ru, 02 марта 2017
* In April 2019 MTS, and Beeline made a stand against adoption of eSIM in Russia.[Другие правила от Хоум Кредит Банк и Теле2]
Banki.ru, форумное обсуждение, 07 октября 2017
On May 14, 2019 at the decision of the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media ( Minkomsvyaz), the release of Tele2 Russia eSim was suspended.[Tele2 предлагает абонентам перейти на eSim]
/ref> On 20 September 2019 the Ministry lifted the ban.[Операторы связи и ФСБ выступили против технологии встроенных сим-карт]
/ref>
5G
In August 2019 Tele2 Russia in association with Ericsson launched the first in Russia pilot 5G zone in Tverskaya Street in Moscow providing full outdoor coverage from the Kremlin to the Garden Ring. The pilot 5G zone operates in the 28GHz band in NSA (Non-standalone) mode, which allows deployment of 5G in LTE networks and simplifies the implementation of the latest standard at the initial stage.[Минкомсвязи остановило выдачу eSim от Tele2]
/ref>
On August 23, 2019 the company performed testing of subscriber equipment in the pilot 5G network. The device based on Qualcomm® mobile platform Snapdragon™ demonstrated a peak throughput of about 2.1Gbit/s and a minimum latency of 9 msec.
/ref>
In October 2019 the company launched cloud games in the flagship store in Tverskaya street in Moscow to show the difference in the quality of gaming when connected to 4G and 5G networks. The game runs on a remote server, only the "picture" is transmitted to the user's device. During the cloud game in 5G network the company achieved the speed of more than 1Gbit/s with a latency of 5 msec.
February 17, 2020 Tele2 conducted the first live broadcast on 5G networks in the urban environment in Russia. The live-stream was broadcast by Sony Xperia
is a series of and the sole brand name of smartphones marketed by Sony. It also includes various related mobile hardware such as tablets as well as software. Xperia was originally developed by Sony Ericsson before becoming Sony Mobile as a r ...
5G device outdoors, on Tverskaya Street and Theater Square, in conditions of heavy traffic. During the tests, Sony mobile terminal based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon
Snapdragon is a suite of system-on-chip (SoC) semiconductor products for mobile devices designed and marketed by Qualcomm, who often refers to these SoCs as "mobile platforms". They typically integrate central processing units (CPU) based o ...
855 chip and Qualcomm Snapdragon X50 modem provided a stable connection.
On August 15, 2020 Tele2 in association with a Swiss mobile operator Sunrise Tele2 launched 5G service for Russian subscribers arriving to Switzerland. The smartphones with fifth generation network support connect the 5G automatically when roaming.
“MVNO Factory”
In 2016, Tele2 Russia started to create mobile virtual network operator
A mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) is a wireless communications services provider that does not own the wireless network infrastructure over which it provides services to its customers. An MVNO enters into a business agreement with a mobil ...
s (MVNOs) – operators which do not have their own infrastructure and therefore use the network of another mobile operator. It is usually established by businesses with extensive client base for providing mobile services to customers on their own account. By November 2017, there were more than 10 MNVOs (most of them in Russia) on the basis of Tele2, of these, Rostelecom
Rostelecom (Ростелеком) is Russia’s largest provider of digital services for a wide variety of consumers, households, private businesses, government and municipal authorities, and other telecom providers.
Rostelecom interconnects all ...
, Sberbank
The Public JSC Sberbank (, initially a contraction of ) is a Russian majority state-owned banking and financial services company headquartered in Moscow. As the Russian successor entity of the State Labor Savings Banks System of the USSR, it was ...
, Multiregional TransitTelecom and Tinkoff Bank
T-Bank (), formerly known as Tinkoff Bank is a Russian commercial bank based in Moscow and founded by Oleg Tinkov in 2006. Up until 2024, the bank did not have branches and was considered a neobank. It is the second largest provider of credit ...
. In November, the company launched their own MVNE-platform (mobile virtual network enabler
A mobile virtual network enabler (MVNE) is a company that provides network infrastructure and related services, such as business support system, and operation support system to a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). This enables MVNOs to off ...
), a set of standard systems, including billing, CRM, analytics tools and other components necessary for the work of MVNO
A mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) is a wireless communications services provider that does not own the wireless network infrastructure over which it provides services to its customers. An MVNO enters into a business agreement with a mobil ...
s. With this platform, Tele2 Russia announced intention to streamline launching of MNVOs and create dozens of them each year. The company named this strategy “MNVO Factory”.[Tele2 получила скорость 2,1 Гбит/c на абонентском устройстве в сети 5G]
/ref> Within 2018, the number of Tele2-based MVNO subscribers increased by 75% to 1.75 million people.[Tele2 подвела итоги 2018 года: компания получила чистую прибыль]
/ref>
According to the results of 2019, there are more than 20 Tele2-based MNVOs (the majority of them in Russia), including Rostelecom, Sbermobile, MTT, Tinkoff Mobile, VTB Mobile. Their subscriber base reckons 3,75 million people, compared with last year, this figure increased by 115%.[Tele2 запустила платформу для создания виртуальных операторов]
VC.ru, 11 декабря 2017
Corporate responsibility
In 2019, Tele2 launched the Pereplavka environmental project aimed at sensibilization of the necessity to process e-waste and stated it was the first project for the ecological disposal of phones. It contributed to the United Nation's SDG 12 "Responsible Consumption and Production" and increased the environmental awareness of Russians. Alena Dymchishina, the project manager of Pereplavka, said "The aim of the project is to draw the clients' attention to the problem of recycling electronic waste". Everyone who brought an old device for recycling before November 1st received prizes from Tele2 including: a certificate for 1,500 rubles for the purchase of a smartphone or 10 gigabytes of mobile internet.
Over the 3 weeks of the campaign, customers from 11 regions of Russia brought 1217 old mobile gadgets for processing. In October 2020, Tele2 scaled the project up and set special boxes for e-waste in 579 brand stores in 60 regions of Russia. All the gadgets are then sent to the Ecopolis Corporation, which disposes e-waste. Phones are then processed into different fractions. The project manager claimed "85-95% of recycled materials will return to production and not a single part will end up in landfill."
The team first got the idea for the project by a team of the marketing department in 2019. The first version of the project was deployed in 11 regions of Russia, to see how relevant the topic of e-waste and processing phones was in Russia. The first version went well and so Pereplavka was created and the project was scaled up to the entirety of the country. Only phones from the company's electrical devices were accepted to link Tele2 with the sustainability project.
Tele2 popularized the problem of electronic waste in Russia and the marketing project (Pereplavka) was advertised on a huge scale, as a positive side effect of this, millions of people all throughout Russia learned about e-waste in Russia and were aware of it. Tele2 chose this topic (electronic waste and how it harms the environment) because it knows many in the high-income class is interested in it and not only that, public opinion polls have shown that it worries almost half of all Russians. Therefore, they have increased their customers loyalty and attract other potential clients as well.
References
External links
Tele2 Russia Website (English)
{{Russian mobile phone companies
Tele2
Mobile phone companies of Russia
Telecommunications companies established in 2003
Companies based in Moscow
Telecommunications companies of Russia
2003 establishments in Russia