While the telecom service providers across the world are deploying LTE, towards nationwide coverage, decisions are taken on closing the older networks.
Telenor Norway has decided to retain its 2G for another 10 years, till 2025, but will cease its 3G networks across the country by 2020, revealed its’ Chief Technical Officer Magnus Zetterberg at the company’s analyst and investor day.
“It’s better to retain 2G than 3G because all the devices today are still embedded with 2G, so you will lose out without the network,” Zetterberg said. “2G is still important for the M2M market,” he added.
The company rolled out 4G across Norway in 2012 and now accounts for 60 percent of mobile data traffic in the country. Towards the end of 2016, the company intends to cover 99 percent of population with 4G. There are also plans for Telenor Norway to launch VoLTE and ‘4G+’, probably by the end of next year.
Telenor Norway accounts for 25 percent of Telenor Group’s total revenue. The company recently acquired Tele2 and thus, will have a $70 million loss from its mainstream revenue. It plans to compensate this loss by focusing on data distribution in the coming years.
