Comviq

Comviq (originally Comvik) is a Swedish prepaid mobile phone brand, fully owned by Tele2 and operating in Tele2s network. The original Comvik operation is the predecessor to two listed companies: Tele2 and Millicom.

Comvik

The company was established in Sweden as Comvik in 1981 as an attempt to break the existing monopoly at the time. During the 1980s, investor Jan Stenbeck's strategy was to pursue, break up and create alternatives to the existing Swedish monopolies in service sectors including telephony and media. In the late 1970s Mr Stenbecks Investment AB Kinnevik started to buy a number of smaller companies in Stockholm and Gothenburg that operated manual communication networks for car based equipment. Through an operator the driver could reach the public telephone network. Eventually these companies were merged and rebranded AB Företagstelefon in Stockholm. In parallel – and in the quiet – the plans were more ambitious. Completely new equipment was purchased, new telephone terminals were developed and then in 1981 Kinnevik launched Comvik. One of the world’s first automatic analogue mobile telephony networks, a few months ahead of the Swedish Telecom (Televerket) deployment of its NMT network.