Foroya Tele P/f, commonly referred to as FT, is the primary telecommunications provider in the Faroe Islands. The company was established in 1905 when the first telephone line was set up by Ólavi á Heygum, connecting Vestmanna and the capital, Tórshavn. The management of this operation was taken over by Løgting the following year, leading to the formation of the state telephone company originally named Færøernes Amtskommunes Telefonvæsen, later renamed to Telefonverk Føroya Løgtings. Over the years, Foroya Tele has significantly developed its infrastructure. By 1930, all locations in the Faroe Islands were connected to the telephone network. The company introduced automatic dialling in Tórshavn in 1953, a feature that became nationwide by 1978. It established a radio link with Denmark in 1954 and improved its international connections with the laying of the SHEFA submarine cable to the Shetland Islands in 1971. The company further expanded its reach in 1994 with the laying of the transatlantic optical fiber cable CANTAT-3, connecting the Faroe Islands directly to the North American continent. Today, Foroya Tele operates as one of the largest companies in the Faroe Islands.
3G Network
The company has provided 2G GSM services over the 900 MHz band since October 1998, and November 2009 launched 3G UMTS over B1 (2100 MHz) and B8 (900 MHz).
3G Frequency Bands
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Active
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Active
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3G Network Events
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Launch of 3G Network
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Launch
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4G Network
4G LTE came to the islands in December 2015 over the B3 (1800 MHz) band, with data rates up to 260 Mbps advertised from its 4G+ (LTE-A) network using 2C aggregation (20 + 15 MHz) of B3 (1800 MHz). Foroya Tele also uses B1 (2100 MHz), B7 (2600 MHz), and B20 (800 MHz) in locations depending on traffic load. As of Q1 2019 LTE-A Pro technologies such as 4X4 MIMO, 256QAM, and carrier aggregation up to 5CA are available in the live network.
4G Frequency Bands
| Network Frequency Band | Max. Channel Bandwidth | Status |
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20
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Active
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15
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Active
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20
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Active
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20
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Active
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15
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Active
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4G Network Events
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Launch of 4G Network
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Launch
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5G Network
In October 2018 Føroya Tele in partnership with Huawei announced that the islands would become among the world's first to implement 5G NR. FT later reselected Ericsson as its 5G vendor in August 2021. The company tested mmWave 5G with data rates up to 6 Gb/s achieved in March 2023.
5G Frequency Bands
5G Network Events
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