Telenor

 ( Official Website ) 

Telenor ASA ( or ) is a Norway majority state-owned multinational telecommunications company headquartered at Fornebu in Bærum, close to Oslo. It is one of the world's largest mobile telecommunications companies with operations , but focused in Scandinavia and Asia. It has extensive broadband and TV distribution operations in four Nordic countries, and a 10-year-old research and business line for machine-to-machine technology. Telenor owns networks in 8 countries. Global presence - Telenor website. Retrieved October 23, 2017.

Telenor is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange and had a market capitalization in November 2015 of Norwegian krone 225 billion, making it the third largest company listed on the OSE after DNB ASA and Equinor (previously known as Statoil).

Televerket opened its first manual mobile telephone system in 1966, being replaced with the automatic NMT system in 1981, and the enhanced NMT-900 in 1986. Norway was the first country in to get an automatic mobile telephone system. The Digital data GSM system came into use in 1993. The third generation of mobile technology with UMTS system began full operation 2004. The Opera web browser was created in 1994 by Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner and Geir Ivarsøy during their tenure at Telenor, and Opera Software was established in 1995, when they went on to continue development of their browser. Telenor and Huawei conducted a successful test of 5G with 70 Gbit/s Speeds in Lab environment.

In the second half of the 1990s, Telenor began mobile operations in other 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, Serbia (2006), Myanmar (2014). Operations in Greece, Ireland and Germany were sold in 1999/2000, and profits were re-invested in emerging markets. In October 2005, Telenor acquired Vodafone Sweden, changing the name to Telenor in April 2006.

Grameenphone was the first Telenor venture in the Asian telecom market and is now the largest mobile operator in Bangladesh, Telenor holds 55.8 per cent of the company. Grameenphone started trading its shares on the stock exchanges in Dhaka and Chittagong on 16 November 2009. The success of Grammeenphone lead to an increased focus on Asia, with successful entries into Malaysia, Thailand, Pakistan and Myanmar. Telenor also entered India, but had to withdraw from that market in 2017, with substantial losses.

In March 2018, Telenor sold its business in Southeast Europe (Bulgaria, Telenor Hungary, Montenegro and Telenor Serbia) to the PPF Group, for a sum of 2.8 billion euros in order to focus more on Asia and the Nordic market.

In 2019, Telenor bought DNA Oyj, the third largest mobile operator in Finland.

On 21 June 2021, Axiata, Telenor and Digi agree to a potential merger of Celcom and Digi to create a stronger telco in Malaysia, which if approved will be completed by the end of 2022. This come after advanced discussions two months earlier. The deal was approved by both Celcom and Digi shareholders on 18 November 2022. The merged company is named CelcomDigi. At completion, Axiata and Telenor will hold equal ownership of 33.1 percent each in the newly merged company. The merger was completed on 30 November 2022 and the company began its operation the next day. Axiata shareholders approve proposed Celcom-Digi merger Digi gets shareholders' green light for proposed merger with Celcom Axiata, Telenor complete Celcom-Digi merger Axiata, Telenor announce completion of Celcom-Digi merger Axiata and Telenor Announce the Successful Completion of the Celcom and Digi Merger Historic merger marks new chapter in Malaysia’s digitalisation journey: “We are in pole position.”

On 22 November 2021, Telenor and Charoen Pokphand, officially announced they have agreed to explore a USD 8.6 billion merger plan between Thailand’s second and third largest telecom operators (by subscribers), True Corporation (TRUE) and Total Access Communication (DTAC) – the proposed merger is subject to regulatory approvals. The merger was "acknowledged" by the regulator NBTC at a meeting on October 20, 2022. Thai telecoms regulator allows $7.3bn True-DTAC merger The newly merged company still retain the True Corporation name, which was founded on 1 March 2023 and it was listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand under the stock ticker symbol TRUE on 3 March 2023. Merged True-DTAC to be called True Corp

The group holds a prominent position in the Scandinavian Broadband and TV market, both with regard to the number of subscribers and to the extent of coverage. The TV distribution is branded Allente. Telenor is also a prominent actor in Asia with operations in five different Asian countries.

At year-end 2021, Telenor held controlling interests in mobile operations in Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Thailand, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Pakistan. The Myanmar operation was announced sold in 2021, and the transaction completed in March 2022.

Telenor Kystradio is responsible for the infrastructure for maritime radio communication in Norway, and also includes five staffed coast radio stations whose primary purpose is to monitor the maritime radio traffic (over e.g. VHF and Mediumwave bands) and to assist marine vessels in distress.

Telenor also operates the national terrestrial broadcast network in Norway, through its subsidiary Norkring.

Thor is a family of satellites owned by Telenor. On 11 February 2008, the THOR 5 satellite was launched into geostationary orbit. The launch was provided by International Launch Services using a Proton-M launch vehicle built by Khrunichev Space Center. Telenor operates three satellites from its satellite control centre at Fornebu (THOR5, THOR6 and THOR7).

Telenor has also previously been active in a number of international markets as a mobile phone network operator:

• COMSAT mobile communications
• AeroMobile
• Opera Software ASA

• Telenor Norge