Displaying items by tag: Norway

Nokia today announced it has been selected by Telia Company as the exclusive provider of 5G RAN in Finland in a five-year deal that includes the modernization of legacy networks and will cover 7,500 sites.

Nokia is a long-standing strategic partner to Telia Company and has also been chosen as the supplier of 5G standalone (SA) core in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden in the Nordic and Baltic regions.

Nokia will supply Telia with its AirScale portfolio including 5G RAN, AirScale base stations and Nokia AirScale radio access products. The deal will see the modernization of existing radio networks, as well as the rollout of 5G in Finland.

 Nokia is the incumbent radio provider for Telia Finland, as well as providing its 5G non-standalone cloud-native core for all countries. These solutions at the heart of the networks will enable Telia to build on its existing leadership position and deliver incredible connectivity and capacity benefits to its consumer and business subscribers.

Nokia’s 5G core and Cloud Packet Core (CPC) portfolios will also supply Telia with a 5G SA core network, an expansion of the current core network from Nokia. Building upon Telia’s existing Control/User Plane Separation (CUPS) core network architecture, Nokia's CPC’s appliance solution will be used in the 5G SA user plane, making it highly scalable. Nokia’s core solution allows Telia to build a unified core network offering quad-access (2/3/4/5G) services for a seamless experience to their subscribers.

Telia opened the first pre-commercial 5G networks in Helsinki, Vantaa and Oulu in Finland in September 2018 together with Nokia. The commercial network was opened at the beginning of 2019, and the accelerated roll-out has continued to 42 cities in Finland, with a population coverage of over 25 percent. 

Allison Kirkby, President and CEO of Telia Company, said, “Our networks have never been more important and are the foundation of a thriving digital economy. Nokia is our sole supplier of 5G standalone core in all markets and of radio network technology in Finland. We share a long history of close collaboration with Nokia, particularly in Finland, and I look forward to continuing this partnership by delivering the best network for our subscribers.”

Pekka Lundmark, President and CEO, Nokia, said, “We are delighted to extend our long-standing partnership with Telia Company. For over half a century we have worked with Telia to deliver best-in-class connectivity - now that continues into the 5G era, as we supply Telia's RAN technology in Finland and its core 5G network across the Nordic and Baltic nations. I look forward to continuing our close collaboration with Telia for years to come.”

Nokia is a global leader in 5G with the industry's only end-to-end portfolio that is available globally. With more than 160 commercial engagements underway, its 5G solutions, software and services allow Nokia customers to take advantage of the promise of this next generation of network technology.

The hype surrounding the highly anticipated merger plan between Malaysia’s Axiata Group Bhd and Norway’s Telenor Group seems to have lost traction since the plan was first announced in May, due in fact to the Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo’s statement that the potential partnership is still very much at the proposal stage.

Telenor Denmark has launched Europe’s first outbound VoLTE roaming service.

Due to the shutdown of its 2G and 3G networks, the telco industry’s VoLTE roaming implementation pace had been running very slowly and sought an alternative voice roaming solution. In October 2018, Telenor Denmark welcomed its outbound VoLTE roaming.

In the same month, Telenor Norway opened for inbound VoLTE traffic from Telenor Denmark.

Telenor’s Global Wholesale unit has played a significant role in making VoLTE roaming become reality in Telenor by coordinating efforts across all company units. Telenor Norway and Denmark were chosen as pilot project in order to learn and build the necessary competence that will be used to address other Telenor units and their specific network and billing challenges. This means that upcoming Telenor affiliates can implement VoLTE roaming faster and more efficient, which also includes cost synergies.

Harald Krogh, CEO of Telenor Group’s Global Wholesale unit says “I am proud that Telenor now has taken the first steps towards establishing a new voice roaming solution. However, VoLTE roaming is not a single operator’s task. It can only be valuable if the whole industry embraces the challenge and makes the substantial efforts which are necessary to move voice roaming from 2G/3G to VoLTE. As an industry it is time to work together, enable the shutdown of the legacy networks and thereby simplify and optimize the way we work.”

For the time being Telenor has enabled VoLTE roaming only on selected handsets from Sony and Samsung. In order to speed up VoLTE roaming rollout and start looking for effective ways to enable VoLTE roaming for all customers, it is urged to onboard other handset vendors as well.

“If Telenor are to succeed with this, we need both our roaming partners and handset vendors to give more attention to VoLTE roaming and contribute with their pieces of this important roaming puzzle. This is where our focus will be in the months to come. We have a solution ready for inbound as well as outbound and are now working with onboarding one affiliate at a time”, Krogh adds.

Norway-based Telenor Group and Wireless Trondheim are joining forces to open a new IoT powerhouse to boost innovation, build competencies and promote Norwegian competitiveness. The IoT ProtoLab will be open to start-ups, developers and students looking to rapidly prototype and develop IoT products and services. 

Opening in early 2018, the IoT ProtoLab will be a centre for IoT research and innovation, specifically focusing on next generation Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) technologies and applications. It will also enable the exchange of data, sharing of experiences and collaboration with ongoing projects at the Telenor-NTNU AI-Lab.

The lab was established as part of Telenor's initiative to prepare Norway for a digitised future, contribute to national competitiveness, increased innovation and new competencies.

“The people and companies shaping tomorrow's society are the ones that are able to utilize and apply data in new ways,” said Sigve Brekke, President and CEO of Telenor Group. “Telenor is committed to help build these capabilities in Norway. The IoT ProtoLab will be a place for students, entrepreneurs and startups to experiment and prototype solutions using next-generation IoT technologies.”

 The IoT ProtoLab will be located at FAKTRY, the new community for ambitious start-ups in hardware-centric disciplines at Sluppen in Trondheim, which opens in November 2017.

To support the piloting and testing of IoT services in Trondheim, Wireless Trondheim has enabled a city-wide IoT test-bed and connected to Telenor's non-commercial offering, Start IoT.  This provides access to IoT devices, a physical LPWA pilot network and a backend system, which enables prototyping and developing of IoT services at a relatively low cost. Wireless Trondheim will be responsible for the setup and the daily operation of the IoT ProtoLab.

“Our mission at Wireless Trondheim is to enable students, entrepreneurs and start-ups to experiment and prototype solutions using next-generation IoT technologies,” said Thomas Ulleberg, Manager of Wireless Trondheim. “By coupling our specialist competence with companies like Telenor, we can create real impact and help make new smart products and services for the future.”

In addition to its Start IoT offering, Telenor will also provide mentorship, support internships in the lab and will collaborate with key partners for student projects and hackathons. The first official IoT ProtoLab hackathon will be organised at FAKTRY in November by Telenor, Wireless Trondheim and Pycom.

The two day event aims to gather creative minds of the city's developer community, start-ups and students to identify and solve real-life critical business problems using next generation IoT technology, supported by experts, network access and devkits.

Norway’s state-owned international telecom firm Telenor Group delivered a strong set of results for the second quarter of 2017 with improved revenue growth, double-digit EBITDA uplift and strong cash flow generation. Both the EBITDA and the EBITDA margin are all-time high this quarter for the company.

“We were able to reduce our costs by NOK 0.6 billion (US$73.3 million) and we saw margin expansion in all our business units,” said Sigve Brekke, President and CEO, Telenor Group. “The robustness of our Norwegian operation, the strong revenue growth in Bangladesh and the return to growth in Thailand were amongst the highlights for the quarter.”

Brekke added, “At the Capital Markets Day in February, we shared our strategic ambitions towards 2020, highlighting continued growth, improved efficiency and simplification as key drivers for value creation. I am pleased to see that we have taken several steps during the first six months of the year to execute on this strategy.”

As a result of the achievements in the first half of the year, Telenor Group is “stepping up” its efficiency ambitions and is raising the EBITDA margin guidance for 2017. With rapid changes in customer behavior and technology advances, continued cost reductions will be necessary in the coming years, the CEO said.

In line with its simplification agenda, Telenor Group sold its online classifieds positions in Latin America and continued the sell down of VEON (formerly VimpelCom) in the quarter. Following proceeds from recent transactions combined with a solid balance sheet, the Telenor Group Board has decided to distribute parts of the funds to shareholders through a 2% share buyback program.

NEC Corporation, which specializes in the integration of IT and network technologies, announced on May 10 that it has signed a global frame agreement with Telenor, the Norway-based worldwide telecommunications operator, to provide microwave communications systems.

Telenor’s agreement with NEC will apply to the Telenor Group's 13 telecommunications affiliates in Northern Europe, Eastern Europe and Asia. Through this agreement, NEC will provide total support from the introduction of NEC's ultra-compact microwave communications systems, iPASOLINK VR and iPASOLINK EX Advanced, to maintenance services over the next five years.

NEC is first scheduled to provide iPASOLINK to Telenor Pakistan, then to expand the supply of its products to telecommunications affiliates in other areas.

NEC and Telenor have been working together since the 1980s, and the companies have signed several global frame agreements on microwave communications systems since 2006. NEC has the largest share in cumulative shipments for microwave communications systems for Telenor. Moreover, in 2015, NEC and Telenor signed a global frame agreement on IP routers and optical communications systems. Collectively, NEC can provide the necessary systems for Telenor to build an effective transport network.

"We are honored to sign this agreement with Telenor," said, Atsuo Kawamura, Executive Vice President, NEC Corporation. "With NEC's iPASOLINK, Telenor can enhance network connectivity, enabling their customers to experience better, high-quality services. NEC will continue to provide advanced solutions to Telenor, including microwave equipment, IP routers and optical communications systems, so that we can contribute to the diversification and sophistication of their communication services."

Norway’s Telenor Group and Huawei jointly announced the first 5G based E-band multi-user MIMO demo in Norway. The maximum speed reached by the demo was 70Gbps. Furthermore, a Joint Desktop Study that will provide insights and learnings to identify necessary update steps from 4G to 5G technology in Telenor’s Network, will be operated through the Telenor and Huawei Joint Innovation Center.

The E-band multi-user MIMO can provide over a 20Gbps speed rate for a single user. Working as a supplementary low frequency band, the E-band enhances the user experience of eMBB (Enhanced Mobile Broadband).

The Norwegian Minister of Transport and Communications, Mr. Ketil Solvik-Olsen, attended the event and personally launched the Demo. Telenor Group CEO, Mr. Sigve Brekke said, “This is a big day for Telenor, because finally we can demonstrate the potential of 5G, and Norway will always be the first market for us to test new technology.”

Telenor Nordic CEO, Berit Svendsen, gave special thanks to Huawei for their key contribution to this collaboration. She said, “No operator can do this alone, that is why our partnership with Huawei is so incredibly important. Huawei are far ahead in this area”.

The president of Huawei Telenor Key Account Team, Mr. Zhang Chao said, “Huawei is one of the world’s leading organizations working on the standardization and development of 5G, and I congratulate us all in taking this first important step towards 5G. We are very proud to be part of this first 5G demo in Norway.”

Telenor, being one of the world's leading telecom operators, has a very clear technical strategy and superior execution capabilities. Telenor also follows 5G technology developments closely, and in the international 5G standardization bodies Telenor and Huawei work closely together.

Telia Norway and Huawei announced on December 16, 2016, the first commercial Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) network in the Nordics and the first commercial smart agriculture solution worldwide based on NB-IoT technology.

“This is the start of the rollout of a technology that represents a new industrial revolution. It also marks the beginning of a journey where Telia moves from being a pure mobile operator to becoming a modern technology company and a digital enabler in society,” said Abraham Foss, CEO of Telia Norway.

“What we witnessed today is only the beginning of the IoT era in Norway, where sensors are being used to connect society. As a strategic partner of the world’s leading telecom companies like Telia Norway, Huawei will continue to help operators build IoT solutions that will expand their business and make our world more connected,” said Mr. Zhou Xinmou, President of Huawei Telia Business Unit.

The smart agriculture solution is the first of its kind in the world, and will make irrigation systems more efficient and accurate. Telia’s smart agriculture solution is developed in cooperation with the Norwegian company 7Sense, and is a system for monitoring irrigation systems used in agriculture.

The water irrigator has a mounted sensor that detects its position using GPS, and will provide the operating status of the irrigation system through the use of various sensors. The sensor unit is connected to the mobile network with an NB-IoT module that sends data at regular intervals.

Norway has one of the highest machine-to-machine (M2M) penetration levels worldwide, and at the same time, the country has very high labor costs. Thus, there is a high demand for automation. NB-IoT is acknowledged as the best technology for LPWA (low power wide area) connections, with features such as deep coverage, massive connections, low device costs, long battery lifetime, carrier grade quality and high security.

The announcement is only the beginning of an acceleration in the IoT markets for the public (parking, utility, metering), consumers (wearable, tracking), and for industry (agriculture, logistics, transportation).

Facebook was confronted on Friday, September 9, with fierce indignation in Norway as the nation's top newspaper, the prime minister, and Facebook users voiced outrage over the network's decision to censor a historic Vietnam War photo of a naked girl escaping a napalm bombing. By September 10, Facebook had restored the post by Norwegian Prime Minister, Erna Solberg which it had taken down.

Facebook deleted the 1972 picture taken of a naked Vietnamese girl running from a napalm attack, which was one of the war’s defining images, from users’ pages, including that of Norwegian Prime Minister, Erna Solberg. Taken by Vietnamese photographer, Nick Ut Cong Huynh for Associated Press, the picture was honored with the Pulitzer Prize.

"Facebook is taking the wrong road when it censors photos like this. This contributes to blocking freedom of expression," the Norwegian Prime Minister wrote on her Facebook page, in a comment that quickly received thousands of "likes".

The affair reportedly began several weeks ago after Norwegian author, Tom Egeland published a post about war photos, illustrated by the iconic picture. It was promptly deleted by Facebook. Many Facebook users rose to his defense and published the photo, but Facebook repeatedly deleted it because of its rule against nudity.

"I appreciate the work done by Facebook and other media to stop images and content showing physical abuse and violence. It's important that we all contribute to the fight against violence and physical abuse of children," the Prime Minister's Facebook post said. Solberg re-posted the picture, this time with the nudity blacked out in protest and an added plea to Facebook to "review its censorship policy and assume the responsibility befitting of a large company with a broad communication platform."

Norway's leading daily Aftenposten also shot back against Facebook's censorship by publishing the photo on its print front page, under Facebook's logo, accompanied by a two-page open letter to Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg.

"I write you this letter because I'm concerned by the fact that the biggest media in the world is limiting freedoms instead of trying to broaden them, and because this is happening in a sometimes authoritarian fashion," editor-in-chief, Espen Egil Hansen wrote under the headline "Dear Mark."

Aftenposten had also published the picture on its Facebook page several days previously. Facebook had asked it to take down the picture, but then deleted it before Aftenposten editors could respond to Facebook's request, AFP reported. "I'm afraid we're becoming a society where the lowest common denominator determines what is shocking to the global population," Hansen told AFP.  "The information has to be as acceptable in a small village in Pakistan as in an intellectual milieu in Paris. This lowest common denominator is a very dangerous mechanism when it is implemented by the most influential editor-in-chief in the world," he said in reference to Zuckerberg.

The controversy spread, with the Norwegian Press Federation going so far as to ask the country’s powerful pension fund, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, to examine whether the censorship was in line with its ethical criteria for investments. The fund owned 0.52 percent of Facebook at the end of 2015.

By September 10, Facebook caved in and restored the post by the Norwegian Prime Minister. But the social media giant didn’t go so far as to apologize, but rather made an exception, and stood by its original decision.

“An image of a naked child would normally be presumed to violate our Community Standards, and in some countries, might even qualify as child pornography,” the company said. “In this case, we recognize the history and global importance of this image in documenting a particular moment in time.”

After Facebook reversed its position on the image, Solberg told the BBC she was a "happy prime minister," saying: "It shows that using social media can make (a) political change even in social media."

Pakistan has awarded a $395 million 4G licence to Norwegian telecom giant Telenor, as it seeks to capitalize on a booming domestic mobile market some two years since broadband internet arrived in the country.

In 2014, Pakistan auctioned its first 4G broadband license to China's Zong for $210 million, along with 3G licenses to Zong, the UAE's Warid, and Pakistan's domestic Mobilink. The total raised in the auction was $1.2 billion.

In the first quarter of 2015 smartphone shipments to the country soared by 123 percent, according to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority's annual report, one of the fastest growth rates in the developing world.

Since then, broadband use has exploded, with the number of users growing to around 29 million from a mere 1.9 million -- a higher percentage than India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Pakistan's state-run Telecom Authority (PTA) had auctioned the license to local and international telecom companies, with Telenor winning the bid.

"The license for 850 MHz band will be awarded on base price of $395 Million in accordance with the schedule," an internal statement from PTA said. "The licencse will be awarded to Telenor within 30 days of payment," it added.

Telenor Pakistan is 100 percent owned by Norway's Telenor Group, one of the largest mobile operators in the world.