In common with other Scandinavian countries, Norway has a sophisticated telecom market with high broadband and mobile penetration rates and a developed digital TV sector. Although not a member of the European Union, its telecoms sector is synchronised with relevant EC legislation. Telenor and Tele2 are the dominant operators in all sectors, though there is increasing competition from new entrants. This report introduces the key elements of Norway’s telecom market in 2007, providing statistics and an overview of the regulatory environment, the fixed network operators and their services and telecom infrastructure.

news from budde

Norway’s mobile market is a duopoly between the network operators Telenor Mobile and TeliaSonera’s NetCom, supplemented by a small number of MVNOs. Mobile penetration reached 100% in 2005, though annual growth rate remains among the highest in Europe. Telenor’s analogue network was closed in January 2005, while both Telenor and NetCom offer GSM 900/1800 networked services and 3G services. This report profiles Norway’s mobile market in 2007, providing statistics on the main operators, a review of the key regulatory issues, and a snapshot of the consumer market for mobile data services such as SMS and mobile TV.

news from budde

Norway just recently went through the privatization process of their telecommunications industry. There are a growing number of telecommunications companies in Norway; however Telenor is by far the largest ICT provider. Industry estimates indicate that Telenor has roughly about 80% of the market. The deregulation of the telecommunications industry in Norway is showing signs of improvement. New providers are beginning to emerge in the form cable companies, electric companies, wireless carriers, and network providers are all beginning to increase competition over the business and consumer markets.

Nera SatCom (Nera) is a Norwegian company that is pioneering in ICT by developing wireless information solutions. Nera is seaking to integrate a number of technologies (telephony, media, information, and high speed wireless) into one seamless solution. Nera feels there will be significant demand in the future as markets develop and technologies converge. Nera has built a wireless broadband network that allows access for these bandwidth intensive devices. Nera has also invested in mobile satellite communications and applied this to maritime industries. The services are projected to be very popular in markets where internet usage is high..

Norway has managed to establish a number of trends amenable to the knowledge economy. Norway’s cell phone usage, internet access, wireless internet access are among the highest rates anywhere in the world (see graph 4.2.1 below). The following are a series of graphs comparing Norway to the G7 and other Scandinavian countries.

news from american.edu

Premium SMS is the mobile world's new large source of income. After the market for ordinary SMS messages has boomed mobile operators in the UK and around the world have started introducing a new type of SMS that varies in price compared to what content they are containing.

There are large amounts of money to be made within the area of Premium SMS. The price on these SMS services will most likely vary from 10 pence to £ 2 depending on the content of the SMS. The services that could be offered vary a lot. Among these are: Receiving a daily joke. Housefinder: informs users of which houses and apartments that are for sale in selected areas. Weatherfinder: Offers the user a forecast specific to the area in which the phone is located.

This new type of communication means can also be used when paying for parking, ringing tones etc. The example mentioned above concerning the jokes could be divided into various price categories. For instance: Ordinary joke 10 pence, rude joke 30 pence, a really rude joke 50 pence. This type of services was introduced in Norway in the end of year 1999. The first year, the average Norwegian will be spending £ 6.7. This year they are estimated to be spending £ 10.9 per person.

The value of premium SMS can easily beat the value of Internet advertising - It has already happened in Norway!


The potential market for premium SMS services in Europe is enormous. If we take a look at the leading country within this area, Norway, and do our
calculations based on the Norwegian level for premium SMS messages we can expect to be seeing potential earnings as high as:

Germany £ 442,657,098
Italy £ 407,003,550
UK £ 368,259,265
Spain £ 284,943,199


If the British operators were to gain the same amount of success as their Norwegian counterparts they will during the first two years be able to
generate a business in the amount of:

Year 1 Year 2
Vodafone £ 81,405,000 £ 132,435,000
Orange £ 70,350,000 £ 114,450,000
One2One £ 59,630,000 £ 97,010,000
BT Cellnet £ 73,030,000 £ 118,810,000


Other than being able to generate a large sale for the operators, Premium SMS will also take part in educating the British people about content
costing money on the mobile Internet. It will help making it easier for the operators when they start introducing UMTS. This is supposed to make it
easier for the operators when selling services on the future UMTS net.


The premium SMS services can be compared to a treasury that is wide open and waiting to be found. This is how the potential our report has found (for more information please refer to the attached file). Among other interesting findings are:

- The potential for the premium SMS market in the UK alone is somewhere between £ 265 million and £ 0.85 billion.

- The possibility for higher earnings within the area of premium SMS services worldwide is gigantic.

- New ways of invoicing will help to increase the earnings of the SMS services

news from strandconsult