Síminn

Company Overview

Síminn (Iceland Telecom) is the dominant telecommunications company and mobile network operator in Iceland. Founded in 1906 as Landssími Íslands following the connection of Scotland to Faroe Islands via submarine telegraph cable, the company remained state-owned until its privatisation in 2005 when it was sold to Skipti ehf. In December 2005, three companies, Landssími Íslands, Íslenska sjónvarpsfélagið, and the parent entity, Skipti ehf., merged and the name was subsequently changed to Síminn hf.

Mobile services began with 1G in 1986, and 2G GSM beginning in 1994 over the 900 and 1800 MHz bands. 3G UMTS services were launched in September 2007 over the B1 (2100 MHz) band with B8 (900 MHz) added in October 2008. The network was upgraded to DC-HSPA+ in August 2013.

4G LTE began in January 2014 over B3 (1800 MHz), using a 20 MHz channel. Síminn began deploying LTE-Advanced in November 2016 with a successful activation in December, providing peak data rates up to 200 Mbps using CA_3C aggregation of two 1800 MHz channels. Peak data rates were extended to 300 Mbps with the addition of B7 (2600 MHz) around July 2017. There are unconfirmed reports of a 10 MHz B1 (2100 MHz) LTE carrier.