About The Pioneers
The Pioneers is a tightly interwoven story of the development of mobile telephony and the Nordic countries' essential role in this.
We can read of how a meeting at Kabelvåg in Lofoten, Norway in 1969 became the starting point for development of the joint Nordic mobile telephone system. The good experiences from this were decisive and essential in making the later collaboration in the development of GSM – the second generation of mobile telephony – so successful.
Svenolof Karlsson bases his account much on interviews with those who participated in the events during the period covered by the book. Senior management staff share their personal recollections and comments. The events related span a relatively short period – just 33 years – but during these years, a lot happened. Our way of using telecom services was completely changed. Landline telephony remains but has been complemented by mobile telephony, which is now in its fourth generation since the initial launch of NMT in 1981.
The Swedish Televerket, (and later Telia) was a driving force in this development. It led to the elimination of Televerket´s monopoly and turned the company into a competitor among many others in an open market.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in the autumn of 1989, a new market opened in Eastern Europe. Telia and Sonera were early to move into this market. Often in joint projects, and sometimes individually. Before political stability was achieved, the companies were sometimes at the center of very dramatic courses of events.
The account is available in its entirety as a PDF file that can be downloaded and printed for those who would like to read it in book form. We have also inserted extracts from the story, linked to other content at this web site.
Read the book