Stepping up modernisation of Norway

(Fornebu, 30 January 2019) Telenor will ensure that the customers have access to the Internet using high speed fibre and the world’s fastest mobile network. The modernisation of the fixed network is now being stepped up even further, and the customers will be transferred from the old copper network to new technology.

At present, many people have access to telephony and the Internet via a 100-year-old copper network, which does not have the capacity to offer broadband that is good enough for the future. This is why Telenor is now stepping up its work to move customers to new and modern technology.

During the course of 2019, around 30,000 customers on the copper network will be transferred to newer technology, and our aim is that all customers on the copper network will have their technology refreshed before 2023.

Close partnerships
‘We are in the midst of a phase of modernisation that will ensure that Norway has a network that is fast, reliable and built for the future. Access to the Internet and digital services is a basic requirements for Norwegians, regardless of age or location,’ says Bjørn Ivar Moen, Acting CEO of Telenor Norway.

Through the modernisation, Telenor wishes to establish close partnerships with both central and local authorities, local businesses, customers and other stakeholders.

‘In order to succeed, we need permission to build new base stations and to excavate streets to allow us to roll out new fibre and mobile coverage. We also need to establish public-private partnerships that can support elements of this work. Our ambition is clear: Both households and businesses in Norway should have access to modern broadband, says Moen.

New and better technology
Every year, Telenor invests NOK 4.5 billion in more mobile coverage and fibre networks across Norway. By using the world’s fastest mobile network, Telenor has the capacity to offer innovative and robust broadband. Recently, the very first customers in Norway were granted access to fixed mobile broadband via 4G, and selected customers in the Kongsberg area are the first in Scandinavia to test broadband via 5G.

‘We are constantly developing convincing and competitive broadband products over fibre and mobile - two fundamental technologies that support a future in which both people and things are online,’ Moen explains.

For 160 years, Telenor has upgraded technology and led the way in the technological shift in order to offer its customers network access that is reliable, robust and future-oriented. Telenor’s continued phase out of the copper network is taking place in order to respond to customers’ future needs.

‘The modernisation will involve change for customers, but they will get new and better technology via mobile or fibre that will be more solid solutions in the long term. If Norway is to succeed in exploiting the opportunities of new development and digitalisation, we are dependent on a digital infrastructure that ensures that people, businesses and the public sector are all connected to a stable, secure, fast and future-oriented network,’ Moen concludes.

As part of the modernisation process, old telephone poles will be taken down, copper lines will be removed and technical buildings will either be reused or removed.