improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . learn how and when to remove these template messages this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . september 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message this article may require copy editing for grammar style cohesion tone or spelling . you can assist by editing it . june 2016 learn how and when to remove this template message this article contains weasel words vague phrasing that often accompanies biased or unverifiable information . such statements should be clarified or removed . june 2016 learn how and when to remove this template message this article needs attention from an expert on the subject . please add a reason or a talk parameter to this template to explain the issue with the article . consider associating this request with a wikiproject . june 2016 telenor asa type public traded as ose tel otc pink telnf industry telecommunications founded 1970 headquarters fornebu norway key people sigve brekke president and ceo gunn w rsted chairman of the board products fixed line and mobile telephony internet digital television it services iptv revenue nok 106.540 billion 2014 1 operating income nok25 .034 billion 2014 1 profit nok12 .759 billion 2014 1 total assets nok193 .755 billion end 2014 1 total equity nok68 .505 billion end 2014 1 owner government of norway 54 % number of employees 35 121 end 2014 1 website www.telenor.com telenor group ose tel ; norwegian pronunciation te l nu r 2 or t l nu r 2 is a norwegian multinational telecommunications company headquartered at fornebu in b rum close to oslo . it is one of the world s largest mobile telecommunications companies with operations in scandinavia eastern europe 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 12 countries and has operations in 29 countries if their 33 % ownership in vimpelcom ltd is included . 3 telenor is listed on oslo stock exchange and had a market capitalization in november 2015 of kr 225 billion making it the second largest company listed on the oslo stock exchange . 4 contents 1 history 1.1 telegrafverket 1.2 technology 1.3 deregulation and internationalisation 2 operations 2.1 mobile 2.2 fixed line 2.3 research 2.4 machine to machine 2.5 broadcast 3 international activities and markets 3.1 bangladesh 3.2 bulgaria 3.3 myanmar 3.4 denmark 3.5 finland 3.6 hungary 3.7 india 3.8 malaysia 3.9 montenegro 3.10 pakistan 3.11 serbia 3.12 sweden 3.13 thailand 3.14 ukraine russia italy and other countries 4 norwegian internet exchange 5 telenor youth forum 6 criticism 6.1 legal battles with alfa group 6.2 2015 reduction of female leadership from 30 % to 14.3 % 7 see also 8 references 9 external links history edit telenor headquarters in fornebu norway telegrafverket edit telenor started off in 1855 as a state operated monopoly provider of telegraph services named telegrafverket . the first ideas for a telegraph were launched within the royal norwegian navy in 1848 but by 1852 the plans were public and the parliament of norway decided on a plan for constructing a telegraph system throughout the country . televerket began by connecting christiania now oslo to sweden norway was at that time in a union with sweden as well as christiania and drammen . by 1857 the telegraph had reached bergen on the west coast via s rlandet on the south coast and by 1871 it had reached kirkenes on the far north coast . cable connections were opened to denmark in 1867 and to great britain in 1869 . the telegraph was most important for the merchant marine who now could use the electric telegraph to instantly communicate between different locations and get a whole new advantage within logistics . 5 technology edit the first telephone service in norway was offered in 1878 between arendal and tvedestrand while the first international telephone service between christiania and stockholm was offered in 1893 . automation of the telephone system was started in 1920 and completed in 1985 . in 1946 the first telex service was offered and in 1976 satellite telephone connections to oil platforms in the north sea were installed . in 1980 the first steps to digitalise the telephone network were taken . 6 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 europe to get an automatic mobile telephone system . the digital gsm system came into use in 1993 . the third generation of mobile technology with umts system began full operation 2004 . 7 the opera web browser was created in 1994 by jon stephenson von tetzchner and geir ivars y during their tenure at telenor . opera software was established in 1995 after the pair went on to continue development of their browser . citation needed deregulation and internationalisation edit the corporation changed its name to televerket in 1969 . in 1994 the then norwegian telecom was established as a public corporation . the authorities wanted to deregulate the telecom sector in norway and sector by sector was deregulated between 1994 and 1998 . an attempt to merge telenor with its counterpart in sweden telia failed in 1999 while both still were owned by their respective governments . on december 4 2000 the company was partially privatised and listed on oslo stock exchange and nasdaq . the privatisation gave the company nok 15 6 billion in new capital the government of norway owning 77.7 % of the company after the privatisation . as of 2014 the norwegian government holds 53.97 % of the telenor shares directly and another 4.66 % through the pension fund . 8 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 serbia 2006 myanmar 2014 . operations in greece ireland and germany were sold in 1999 2000 and profits were re invested in the emerging markets . in october 2005 telenor acquired vodafone sweden changing the name to telenor in april 2006 . on 31 july 2006 telenor acquired 100 per cent share of mobile operator mobi 63 one of two mobile operations existing in that moment in serbia for euro 1.513 billion . citation needed operations edit telenor offers a full range of telecommunication services in norway including mobile and fixed telephony as well as internet access and content . telenor still dominates the market place in norway . however competition has at times been intense in the mobile market and adsl market but telenor remains the largest company in both sectors . citation needed telenor 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 canal digital . citation needed telenor used to provide a range of services related to satellite communication including voice television and data before its telenor satellite services division was purchased by vizada in 2007 . citation needed telenor maritime radio is responsible for the infrastructure for maritime radio communication in norway and also includes five manned coast radio stations whose primary purpose is to monitor the maritime radio traffic over e.g. vhf and mf bands and to assist marine vessels in distress . citation needed telenor cinclus develops and sells products related to automatic meter reading and other technologies related to machine to machine communication . citation needed telenor also owns 30.2 % of evry formerly held as 51.8 % of the same company under the previous name edb business partner that offers a wide range of it services . the company is listed on oslo stock exchange . citation needed telenor has sold a number of divisions after its privatisation including bravida 9 the former installation division and findexa now part of eniro that is responsible for telephone directories . the browser vendor opera software originated in telenor s r & d department . 10 mobile edit old style telenor mobile sim at year end 2005 telenor held controlling interests in mobile operations in norway denmark sweden serbia ukraine hungary montenegro thailand malaysia bangladesh india and pakistan . telenor also holds minority interests in mobile operations in russia having recently sold a minority share in austria . citation needed in order to maximize the benefit of cross border synergies and increase overall profitability telenor made new acquisitions in 2005 . citation needed in october 2006 telenor entered into an agreement with vodafone group for the acquisition of subsidiary vodafone sweden for a consideration of nok 8 170 million including assumption of debt . citation needed effective from 26 october 2005 telenor increased its economic stake in total access communication dtac in thailand to 56.9 per cent . following further transactions based on mandatory tender offers telenor s economic stake was raised to 69.3 per cent by year end 2005 . citation needed telenor s mobile commitments in asia and eastern and central europe are becoming increasingly important and to ensure optimal follow up telenor has appointed dedicated executive vice presidents for these regions . telenor has also strengthened the co ordination of operational and human resources across all the countries in which the group has operations through the appointment of two new executive vice presidents to the group executive management . citation needed during 2005 telenor successfully extracted a number of cross border synergies across the group . common technologies for optimal spectrum and network utilisation have been successfully implemented at each of the group s operations and telenor maintains its focus on adopting new technologies to improve service quality and reduce costs . citation needed in order to harmonise the group s customer orientation across all markets telenor has developed a common segmentation model that enables more effective targeting while also providing greater insight into the global markets . telenor has developed a framework that provides affiliates with a proven concept of developing target segmented offerings and optimised go to market strategies . citation needed revenues from voice services include traffic charges interconnection fees and roaming charges . all of telenor s mobile operations derive the greatest share of their total revenues from voice services and telenor continues to focus on developing new products services and initiatives to increase telenor s customer base and encourage higher usage . citation needed fixed line edit in norway telenor provides communications solutions on a retail basis to both residential and business customers . offers include analogue pstn and digital isdn fixed line telephony as well as broadband voice services over internet protocol voip internet access via pstn isdn and digital subscriber lines xdsl value added services and leased lines . norway has one of the highest numbers of dsl lines per capita currently when at over 80 % of households and steadily growing . citation needed through the acquisitions of bredbandsbolaget 11 and cybercity made in july 2005 for nok 4.5 billion and nok 1.3 billion respectively telenor has gained a strong position in the fast growing broadband markets in sweden and denmark . bredbandsbolaget is sweden s second largest provider of broadband services offering full triple play with high speed internet voip and internet protocol ip television services on an all ip fibre and xdsl network . cybercity is denmark s third largest broadband supplier providing xdsl based internet access and voice services to both residential and business customers . citation needed on 8 february 2006 telenor increased its shareholding in the swedish residential voice and broadband provider