Telia Norge

Company Overview

Telia Norway is the second largest mobile network operator in Norway. The company was founded in 1993 following the issuance of a second operator licence to NetCom GSM AS in 1991, ending Telenor's long running monopoly. NetCom was publicly listed in 1996 and gradually acquired by TeliaSonera until 2000 when the group tallied 95% ownership and subsequently delisted the company. NetCom was rebranded with Telia's colour scheme in 2011 and finally underwent a name change to Telia Norge in March 2016.

The company has operated 2G GSM services since September 1993 over the 900 and 1800 MHz bands, and in April 2007 launched 3G UMTS services over B1 (2100 MHz). B8 (900 MHz) was implemented in 2011, and the network upgraded to DC-HSPA+ in 2013. Telia announced the intention to switch off its 3G network in early 2019. Telia confirmed its last 2100 MHz tower was shut down June 2021 and final 900 MHz tower switched off November 2021.

Telia, then NetCom, launched the world's first 4G LTE network on the 14th December 2009 over B7 (2600 MHz). The company later refarmed its GSM spectrum added B3 (1800 MHz) in late 2011, and B20 (800 MHz) in April 2014. LTE-Advanced was implemented February 2015, using 2C carrier aggregation to provide peak data rates of 300 Mbps. The company achieved another world first in December 2015 when it piloted gigabit LTE-A Pro, using 4C aggregation of B1+B3+B7+B20 on its live network.

IoT Strategy

Telia was one of the first to begin live trials of NB-IoT technology and made the network commercially accessible in December 2016.

Telia 5G

Following the country's 5G spectrum auction in June 2019, Telia switched on its commercial 5G service in May 2020 over n28 (700 MHz), with plans to achieve nation-wide coverage by 2023. In March 2021 the company announced it was trialling FDD-TDD carrier aggregation on its 5G network using a 3600 MHz carrier.