Telecoms conglomerate TeliaSonera, which is majority owned by the Swedish and Finnish states, has agreed to buy the Norwegian division of its Swedish competitor Tele2, the group announced on Monday.
The sale, worth around 570 million euros, will bring TeliaSonera’s share of the Norwegian mobile phone market to 40 percent up from 23 percent, and increase its number of mobile subscribers from 1.6 million to 2.7 million.
TeliaSonera says it also intends to roll out its 4G network across the country, making it available to 98 percent of the Norwegian population by 2016.
Tele2 sought to offload its Norwegian operations after losing a frequency licence auction in the country at the end of last year.
The deal is subject to approval by Norway’s competition authorities and is currently scheduled to go through by early 2015.