Telenor reports industrial espionage

Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor has, for the the first time, reported a case of serious industrial espionage to the national police unit Kripos. Newspaper Aftenposten reported Sunday that high tech-spies managed to infiltrate Telenor’s extensive security network and empty the contents of top executives’ personal computers. Companies and other victims of computer hacking are often [...]

Telenor attracted to Myanmar

Telecommunications group Telenor has become the latest Norwegian company to eye Myanmar as a potential new market as the country emerges from years of military rule. Norwegian government officials and Telenor executives have recently visited the country, but remain worried about the levels of corruption. Myanmar is rated as one of the world’s most corrupt [...]

Giske grilled in Parliament

Trade Minister Trond Giske faced the disciplinary committee of the Norwegian Parliament this week after accusations that he pressured the boards of state-controlled firms into appointing personal and political allies to top positions. Giske was criticized for meddling in normal processes, but claimed himself that opposition politicians’ “camaraderie theory” had no basis in reality.  Giske [...]

Competition authorities raid Telenor

Teams of inspectors from the Norwegian and European competition authorities were raiding the headquarters office of telecoms giant Telenor on Tuesday. They’re reportedly investigating whether Telenor has misused its dominant position or otherwise tried to restrict competition in the mobile phone market. Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reported around midday that inspectors from Norway’s competition authority (Konkurransetilsynet) and [...]

State-owned Telenor under scrutiny after doing business with dictators

Norwegian Trade Minister Trond Giske is now among those demanding some answers from state-owned Telenor over the business it does with dictatorships in Central Asia. Newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN) has reported that some critics claim Telenor has “blood on its hands” because of the business done through its ownership stake in Russian mobile phone firm Vimpelcom. [...]

Telenor gets new licenses in India

Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor hasn’t given up on doing business in India despite getting caught up in a major political conflict that left it without licenses to operate mobile phone service through an Indian partnership. On Wednesday it won new licenses at a state auction, and said it intends to continue offering mobile phone service [...]

Speculation flies around Telenor CEO

UPDATED: Another top leader at Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor is quitting and the future of Jon Fredrik Baksaas as Telenor’s chief executive seemed far from secure after a week of more drama around the state-controlled company. As political intrigue over Telenor and its ill-fated venture into India reached the highest government levels, a business researcher [...]

Telenor writes off Indian investment

Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor announced on Monday that it was writing off the rest of its huge investment in mobile telephone operations in India. It’s the latest development in a major conflict over operating licenses that’s involved the highest levels of government in both Norway and India, and resulted in billions of kroner in losses [...]

Telenor faces legal marathon in India

Norwegian telecoms giant Telenor has opted to file a huge compensation claim against its partner in India, Unitech, after their joint venture Uninor lost the mobile phone licenses needed to conduct business. Telenor blames the license loss on Unitech, which is responding with a counter claim. It all means that Telenor faces a long and [...]

More record profits, and some losses

State oil company Statoil reported more record profits on Tuesday after another year of high oil prices and major discoveries on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. Two other big companies in which the state has ownership stakes, though, reported some large losses. Statoil remains on a roll, pumping oil revenues and profits into the state treasury [...]

Telenor gets some support in India

Things may be looking up for Telenor, after both a Norwegian and an Indian government minister came with some words of support on Tuesday. Rigmor Aasrud met with her Indian counterpart in New Delhi and said he called Telenor “an important partner” who’s been caught up in “a situation where it’s not to blame.” Aasrud, [...]

More trouble for Telenor in India

An attempt by Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor to cash in on a potentially huge market for mobile phone service in India has backfired badly. Now Telenor is once again turning to its biggest shareholder, the state, for help after getting in trouble on foreign investments. Opposition politicians claim Telenor’s investment in India may turn out [...]

Telenor red-faced as problems grow

UPDATED: Beleaguered staff at Telenor’s headquarters were left having to apologize for new, separate errors that affected customers across the country before and during the weekend. By Tuesday the latest crash of mobile servers remained a mystery. The new problems began on Friday just a week after up to 3 million mobile telephone customers were [...]

‘Signal storm’ caused Telenor outages

Problems at part state-owned telecoms firm Telenor that left as many as 3 million users without coverage for up to 18 hours over the Pentecost holiday weekend were caused by a never-before-seen “signal storm,” the company revealed in a report on Thursday. Telenor CEO Jon Fredrik Baksaas described the problem as the most serious since [...]

Telenor drops charges after outage

Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor is still trying to make amends to angry customers after its mobile telephone network suffered a severe outage that started on Friday. It announced Tuesday that no Telenor customers will be charged for phone usage during the long pinse holiday weekend. Telenor’s trouble began early Friday afternoon when it suddenly became [...]

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