Classroom Companion: Business

Cellular Mobile Internet
Fixed Internet
Internet TV
Internet
radio
VoIP
Single network
(The Internet)
Internet
messaging
Dedicated networks
. Fig. 3.1 The evolution from many dedicated networks to a single network—the Internet consti-
tuting a fixed and a mobile part. Over time, services previously only available on dedicated networks 
move over to the Internet. Finally—when the Internet contains all service functionality available on 
dedicated networks—the dedicated network is shut down. (Authors’ own figure)
 
Chapter 3 ·
Convergence of Technologies and Services

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39
3
the number of fixed-telephone subscriptions is reduced by about 30% in the same 
period (see 
.
Fig. 
3.2
(The World Bank Open Data. 
7
https://data. worldbank. 
org/
)). The situation in the Nordic countries is even more dramatic: the number of 
fixed-telephone subscriptions is halved from 2013 to 2018, giving a halftime of 
only 5 years (Telecommunications services in the Nordic and Baltic countries in 
2018, 
2019
). The smartphone market in the Nordic countries has been saturated 
during the same period, indicating that most individuals in these countries are now 
only using their smartphones as their only telephone services. The same smart-
phone is also most often used for both private and business purposes, also reducing 
the need for the fixed-telephone service in industry and public and private organi-
zations. Part of the fixed telephone traffic has also been replaced by voice over IP 
(VoIP) and related technologies (Skype, Google Hangouts, and WhatsApp). 
However, this replacement of the fixed telephone service was slow until 4G was put 
into operation around 2010. This triggered the rapid reduction in fixed telephones 
we see today. By the end of 2020, the telephone network was terminated in Norway, 
and the service has been replaced by 4G and 5G mobile networks.
The mobile Internet service is the component of the general mobile service car-
rying packet data over IP. The service was introduced when the GPRS (General 
Packet Radio Service) functionality was added to the GSM system in 2000. GPRS 
was developed further in the 3G standard, and until 4G was released, the cellular 
mobile communications networks were designed as dual networks, where one part 
offered circuit switched telephone services and the other part offered packet 
switched data services over a common radio interface. 4G, opened in the early 
2010s, is a pure Internet system only offering packet switching based on IP version 
6 technologies called IP Multimedia System (IMS) and VoLTE. VoLTE (Voice over 
Long-Term Evolution) is a more bandwidth efficient and flexible technology than 
the ordinary VoIP technologies used on the Internet. The general international 
trend is (as in Norway) that 4G and 5G mobile network technologies will replace 
. Fig. 3.2 Evolution of fixed telephony and mobile cellular subscriptions. (Authors’ own figure, 
data extracted from (The World Bank Open Data. 
7
https://data. worldbank. org/
))