is the incumbent telco in
Norway . The headquarter is located at
Fornebu , close to
Oslo . Today, Telenor is mostly an international Mobile company with 12 operations in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Asia. In addition, it has extensive Broadband and
TV-distribution operations in the three Scandinavian countries.
Telenor was formerly a state-operated
Monopoly , and called
Televerket that has been in operation since
1855 . In
1994 , the then Norwegian Telecom was established as a public corporation. In December
2000 , the company was partly privatised and listed on the stock exchange.
Due to Norway's small population and topography, Telenor still dominates the market place in Norway. However, competition has at times been intense in the mobile market and
ADSL market.
Telenor R&D is Norway's largest research establishment within ICT.
In the second half of the 1990s, Telenor became involved in mobile operations in a number of countries:
Russia (
1994 ),
Bangladesh ,
Greece ,
Ireland ,
Germany and
Austria (
1997 ),
Ukraine (
1998 ),
Malaysia (
1999 ),
Denmark and
Thailand (
2000 ),
Hungary (
2002 ),
Montenegro (
2004 ),
Pakistan (
2004 ),
Slovakia ,
Czech Republic . Greece, Ireland and Germany was sold in 1999/2000 and profits were re-invested in the emerging markets.
Approximately half of Telenor's employees work outside Norway.
Telenor holds a prominent position in the
Scandinavia n Broadband and
TV Market , both with regard to the number of subscribers and to the extent of coverage.
]]
The
Opera Web Browser was created in
1994 by
Jon Stephenson Von Tetzchner and
Geir Ivarsøy during their tenure at Telenor.
Opera Software was established in
1995 after the pair went on to continue development of their browser.
Telenor was among the active telcos in developing the
GSM standard and has subsequently reaped the benefits of this through its foray into emerging markets.
Whether through Telenor efforts and/or influence or not, Norway now has one of the highest numbers of DSL lines compared to the population worldwide, going at over 80% of households and not seeming to be slowing down.
Continue its focus on mobile operations in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Asia, become the largest provider of TV and Broadband to customers in Scandinavia, and
sell non-core assets outside this scope.
The company started commercial operations in
Pakistan on
14 March 2005 and has made an announcement that it shall be focusing on the emerging markets in Asia and Pacific region.
