Telia

Telia has initiatives in various countries enhancing digital opportunities women and girls. For example, in Finland, it is a partner in the Women in Tech initiative to attract more women to work in the industry. In Estonia, Telia’s TechGirls programme encourages high school students to choose a career in tech, using a series of workshops and events led by Telia volunteers. The company reports its economic value distribution among stakeholders and the taxes it pays in the countries in which it operates.

Telia’s Mer Digital (More Digital) initiative is an example of a leading practice in teaching digital skills to members of vulnerable groups. The company also works to “bring people closer” by connecting the young and the elderly. It achieves this by training students to teach senior citizens basic digital skills, including how to use online services in their municipality.

The company demonstrates leadership by clearly disclosing that it may share user information with governments and by making data about government requests public. Telia is a signatory to several initiatives aimed at child safety, including the ICT Coalition for Children Online and the GSMA’s Mobile Alliance Against Child Sexual Abuse Content.

Telia demonstrates leadership in innovation by supporting big data for sustainable development and ethics in AI research. As the founder of the AI Sustainability Center, Telia is partnering with universities and non-profit organisations to conduct research into sustainability and ethical AI. In addition, it supports the tech innovation ecosystem through a venture capital fund and provides assistance to a number of start-up programmes.

Telia does not report on its level of support for its digital access initiatives or the number of beneficiaries. In addition, it has not commissioned a third-party assessment of its digital inclusion initiative for women and girls. Telia could better assess the impact of its initiatives by collecting and reporting more data on its programmes.

The company has several digital skills programmes, but only one has been the subject of a third party evaluation. Assessing other initiatives could help Telia better understand whether they merit replication and expansion to other markets. In addition, the company has an opportunity to support school connectivity.

While Telia has information security management certification and reports its data breaches, it has scope to improve transparency. By making its information security certification publicly available and reporting the number of individuals affected by data breaches, the company could increase its transparency and demonstrate leadership in cybersecurity and privacy.

The company has made a public commitment to open source, but it does not currently have any open source or open standards projects. Further, Telia does not report on the number of women it employs in technical roles. The company has an opportunity to further demonstrate leadership in inclusive digital innovation.