NORDPLUS JUNIOR PROJECT

| Finnish Market for Mobile Telephone Operators |

SAUNALATHI

Company history

The roots of Jippii Group Oyj go back to 1994 when the first commercial ISPs saw daylight in Finland. As a result of 12 mergers and acquisitions during spring and summer 1998 a new company with new name Saunalahden Serveri Oy was introduced to Finnish market.
In 1998 and 1999 Saunalahden Serveri Oy (currently Jippii Group Oyj) converted itself successfully from ISP operator to a company that operates also in other complementary business areas, such as telecommunications, wireless Internet, mobile and Internet portal ventures as well as wireless Internet business. The company was listed on the NM list of Helsinki Stock Exchange in April 2000.

In 2000, Saunalahti Oyj purchased both the Internet operator NIC Tietoverkot Oy (July) and Cabinet Group and THK-Net which was a part of Cabinet Group (September).

In October 2000, Saunalahti Oyj changed its name to Jippii Group Oyj to better fulfil the needs of the internationalising company. The name Jippii had already been used as the company’s brand name of the mobile portal. The Group's new business name Saunalahti Group Oyj was entered into
the trade register on 8 May 2003

Since 2000, the company has acquired either the majority of the capital stock or purchased the business operations from the following operators, to name a few:

MagicNet (Germany), April 2000
Mopos Sro (Czech Republic), October 2000
Gigabell Ltd (UK), October 2000
Webleicester (UK), October 2000
Gigabell AG (Germany), October 2000
Cross Telecom AG (Germany), December 2000
Supertel Oy (Finland, Sweden, Denmark, UK) January 2001
Gigabell Ibérica S.L. (Spain), January 2001

Nationality

Jippii Group Corporation is an international company. Currently Jippii's portals are available in twenty countries. In addition to Internet and telecommunications services Jippii offers content and value-added services to both businesses and consumers.

Jippii is also well known for its innovative research and development projects. Among many other things, the company has made major developments in mobile Java gaming and wireless Internet.

Product assortment

Internet

Jippii Group operations are based on a European-wide backbone network with a link also to the Unites States. The network offers fast and reliable, high-quality connections.

Jippii's Network Operations Centre monitors our network 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Our customer service group provides telephone support during business hours to help solve problems or enhance network performance.

Telecommunications

Jippii Group Oyj offers different kinds of telecommunication services: GSM subscriptions and international calls to consumers and businesses as a multiservice operator in Finland.

Jippii Group offers its own GSM subscription currently in Finland. In Finland, Jippii acts as a service operator in Sonera’s mobile phone network. Due to the technology used and its cost structure Jippii Group is able to offer the most inexpensive and developed GSM subscriptions to both consumers and businesses.

Internet Gaming

The uniqueness of the gaming centre is particularly based on three very important factors and their combined effect:

1) Addictive games. Despite the fact that the games are easy to learn most of them offer great challenges to become a good player.

2) Based on Java. The games can be played with an ordinary browser without any additional software that needs to be downloaded.

3) Interactivity. The player always has an opponent who is another person with whom you can also chat during the game.

Mobile Gaming

According to market research it has been estimated that for Nokia handset users alone there would be up to one million who would download games to their handsets by the end of year 2001. Of the projected one million users of mobile games in the end of 2001, Jippii Group expects to have 10% of them (i.e. 100,000 users). As Jippii Group Oyj is device and operator independent it means that this amount can double or triple depending on how well other phone manufactures will deliver GPRS and game capable devices.

SMS products

The m-Commerce unit of Jippii Group Oyj provides a wide range of entertaining and informative services for mobile phone users across Europe via SMS (Short Message Service). Unit’s products are used by the company’s own portals and they are also available to other companies wishing to buy these Jippii’s services. Ring Tones - JAM (Jippii Automatic Music), Logos - Jippii Group pioneered the logo service, Mobile Cartoons - An easy way to send a quick message to a friend and Infotainment - Jippii offers a wide range of SMS services that provide information .

Wireless Internet

Jippii Group Oyj implements mobile Internet based on a vision of freedom of communication and movement. Our high-speed wireless Internet access provides you broadband technology right where you are. Freedom, our wireless mobile Internet solution, provides you with a real-time, uninterrupted and secured connection with a mobile terminal such as a laptop, a multimedia terminal or a handheld device. With Freedom you can access your e-mail or corporate network securely and wirelessly, anywhere and anytime. Jippii Freedom is currently available in more than 100 locations in 50 Finnish cities.
The network is built with using our own Jippii wireless routers, which enable IP mobility for any supported device. With the Jippii wireless router the mobile terminals always utilise the best network connection available.

Business Products and Services

Jippii Group develops and sells data services to business customers, produces the necessary connections and provides business support. The business sales unit comprises Project Sales, Regional Sales and the CallCenter unit. The Business services branch in Helsinki is responsible for sales and production of connections.

Consumer Products and Services

Jippii Group Corporation commercialises, distributes and markets products and services targeted at consumer customers. These products include GSM and Internet subscriptions as well as international and domestic long-distance calls in Finland.

Profitability and distribution channels

In 2002, the Group had turnover of EUR 61.6 million (2001: EUR 87,3 million). Of this figure, 30,0% was generated abroad (40,1%).

The Group´s depreciation during the financial year amounted to EUR 10,0 million (EUR 20,8 million in 2001). The Group´s operating loss for 2002 was EUR – 5,3 million (EUR – 47,0 million in 2001), representing – 8,5% of turnover (-53,9%).

The Group´s financial expenses during the period were EUR 2,1 million (EUR 2,4 million), including EUR 0,4 million in non-recurring items related to the acquisition of EUnet Finland´s business operations

The net loss for the period was EUR – 5,1 million (EUR – 53,0 million).

BREAKDOWN OF TURNOVER AND EARNINGS BY BUSINESS AREA, EUR MILLION

TURNOVER OPERATING
INTERNET AND TELEOPERATOR 40,0 5,2
MOBILE ENTERTAINMENT 16,8 -1,9
OTHER BUSINESSES 4,8 - 4,0
ADMINISTRATION -4,5
TOTAL 61,6 -5,3

Information is taken from the website:
http://www.jippiigroup.com/contact.shtml
http://www.saunalahtigroup.com/bulletin.php?index=160

SWOT - ANALYSIS

Strengths	Weaknesses
• well known for its innovative research and development projects • has made major developments in mobile Java gaming and wireless Internet • in accordance with the new strategy, the company shall engage in two types of business operations: multiservice operator activities related to telecommunications and Internet products in Finland and mobile entertainment services in the international arena.	• Jippii Group’s growth depends also on technological development and changes in the consumers’ consumption habits.
Opportunities	Threats
• is expected that the market for mobile entertainment services will see extremely strong growth in the next few years • goal is to grow profitably • in july 2003 mobile phone operator change is possible without phone number changes. For example, if you own Sonera operator and change it in july for Saunalahti operator, your phone number will be the same.	• the competition between companies offering Internet and data services will increase and there will be more companies in the market • economic situation is weak