The History of Radio Links in Norway

From a contributor:

This is a journal article from the "official" technical magazine of the former Norwegian telephone monopolist, Telenor. The article describes the design and build-up of the backbone radio line network in Norway. The article is from 1996. Now all Norwegian main stations are interconnected with fibres, so there is really no need for it anymore. The backbone system still exists, it is kept in operation because of regulations.

Much of the operation is classified under Norwegian law, and since the maps were published, no other maps showing this network have been published (officially, at least).

In regional networks radio links are common because of difficult conditions and very high costs of fibre digging. Many local loops with only 150 subscribers had their own radio link, because this was cheaper than digging. A result of this is a very good distribution of capacity in rural areas, and it is now possible to have broadband delivered by ADSL even to the most rural areas of Norway. Radio links are also used on the mobile network.

The Norwegian Joint Defense Signals Agency also operates a quite extensive radio line network. Some of their stations are jointly operated with Telenor and other operators, others are sole defense sites.

This network is used for what they call "Forsvarets Digitale Nett" (The Defense Digital Network) and is used for IP and telephone services. The details of this are classified, but some interesting features are known. For example, the number system is coordinated between Telenor and the defense agency, so that all (at a low classification level) military phones can be reached by the outside. For example, the military number might be 0510-3158, so the telephone can be reached by the outside world by 2309-3158 (only eight digits in Norway). How this is managed I don't know, but this goes for all military numbers in Norway.

This is a site still operated by the defense agency, but also used by Telenor and others. This leaflet is in Norwegian, but I guess you will understand the drawings.

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Created on January 10, 2007 at 21:06 by Albert LaFrance