Norway is not a European Union Member State, but as a result of its membership of the European Economic Area (EEA), it is bound by the EU directives on electronic communications networks and services, and has indeed transposed these directives into national law.

In application of the new legislation, the Norwegian Post and Telecommunications Authority (NPT) has published a public consultation document, containing its proposed market analysis for:

Market 8: Call origination on the public telephone network at a fixed location.

Market 9: Call termination on individual public telephone networks provided at a fixed location.

Market 10: Transit services in the fixed public telephone network.

Interested parties are invited to comment by 10 Sep 2004.

The document puts forward that Telenor, the fixed incumbent operator, has a share of 95 to 99% of Market 8. This market share is a strong indicator in its own right, and on the basis of this indicator combined with other indicators (e.g. no other choices for the consumer, Telenor is a horizontally integrated company with a strong market position in a large number of connected markets, Telenor's financial strength) the regulatory authority has concluded that Telenor should be designated as having Significant Market Power on this market.

With regard to Market 9, the regulatory authority puts forward the following entities as having Significant Market Power (100% of the market for terminating calls on their own network): SmartCall, TeleDanmark, Powertech, Consorte, Song Networks, Priority Telecom, Tele2, Ventelo, MCI, Equant, PortIt, Teletopia, Tiscali, Utfors, Lyse, Telenor and UPC.

As far as Market 10 is concerned, Telenor is found to have a market share of more than 70%. The NPT concludes that, for the time being, Telenor should be designated as having Significant Market Power on the transit market.

The full text of the consultation document (in Norwegian only), can be accessed by clicking here.