Telenor Group is the incumbent telecommunications company in Norway, with headquarters located at Fornebu, close to Oslo. Today, Telenor Group is mostly an international wireless carrier with operations in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Asia, working predominantly under the Telenor brand. At the end of 2010, its 203 million subscribers made it one of the largest mobile phone operators in the world. In addition, 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 started off in 1855 as a state-operated monopoly, named Telegrafverket as a provider of telegraph services. 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 the telegraph throughout the country. Televerket began by building from Christiania (now Oslo) to Sweden (Norway was at that time in a union with Sweden) as well as between Christiania and Drammen. By 1857 the telegraph had reached Bergen (west coast) via Sørlandet (south coast) and by 1871 it had reached Kirkenes (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.