?TeliaSonera/DemonWare deal

?TeliaSonera International Carrier today announced that it has signed a three year deal with DemonWare, to ensure that multiplayer gamers around the world continue to enjoy a fast and reliable online gaming experience.

The partnership sees TeliaSonera International Carrier providing server hosting and Internet connectivity for Activision Publishing’s games portfolio, which includes some of the world’s most popular computer and video games including Guitar Hero and Call of Duty. This is an extension of TeliaSonera International Carrier’s initial one year contract with Activision’s DemonWare, one of the leading providers of network middleware technologies for console and PC games, which covered the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and saw more than 640,000 simultaneous players online on the PlayStation network alone across North America, Europe and Asia over Christmas 2009. TeliaSonera will continue their work on the Call of Duty franchise with the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops this holiday.

Tony Kelly, CEO at DemonWare, commented: “For online gamers it is imperative that we offer a seamless online experience. TeliaSonera’s connectivity and underlying network has the capacity and stability we require to handle hundreds of thousands of simultaneous users, ensuring that globally the experience is near real time, without compromising the online gaming experience. At the same time, TeliaSonera’s gaming expertise and their willingness to go the extra mile played a key role in our decision to extend and grow the work we do with them.”

TeliaSonera International Carrier owns and operates a global gaming platform, aimed at serving the needs of the professional online gaming industry providing high capacity and resilience. The gaming platform runs across its global fibre-based network, with more than 100 points of presence in 35 countries across Europe, the US and Asia; and over more than 43,000 kilometers (27,000 miles) of optical fibre network. Every link and network element is monitored and managed from a central point; each fibre connection is fully redundant and individual streams are monitored and managed continuously. In the unlikely event of significant signal degradation or failure the network will instantaneously switch to an alternative path, without impacting quality of service to the end consumer.

Erik Hallberg, President and Head of TeliaSonera International Carrier, says: “DemonWare work on some of the most popular online gaming titles on the market, requiring a high capacity, reliable service. We aim to be the network provider of choice for games publishers and developers within the next three years, so it is great to see our relationship with DemonWare growing. Our gaming platform - currently handling a large portion of all online gaming worldwide - is purpose-designed to support the demands of online gamers both today and for the long term, enabling us to guarantee and enhance the online gaming experience for DemonWare’s customers.”

In addition to connectivity, TeliaSonera International Carrier offers an integrated and fully customisable set of infrastructure specific services that combine IP connectivity with colocation, hardware leasing and managed services. This offer is fully flexible, tailoring the scale and scope of service to match the requirements of the game.

TeliaSonera's press office for journalists can be reached at + 46-771 77 58 30

TeliaSonera provides network access and telecommunication services in the Nordic and Baltic countries, the emerging markets of Eurasia, including Russia and Turkey, and in Spain. TeliaSonera is also the leading European wholesale provider of quality cross-border voice, IP and capacity services, with a wholly-owned international carrier network. TeliaSonera’s services help people and companies communicate in an easy, efficient and environmentally friendly way. TeliaSonera creates value by focusing on providing world-class customer experience, securing quality in networks and achieving a best-in-class cost structure. In 2009, TeliaSonera’s net sales amounted to SEK 109 billion, and at the end of December 2009 the total number of subscriptions was 148 million in 20 countries. The TeliaSonera share is listed on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm and NASDAQ OMX Helsinki. Read more at www.teliasonera.com