Telenor Norge, the domestic unit of Telenor Group, has started to deploy 4G base stations with the 800-MHz band to boost coverage in rural areas of Norway and indoors, TeleGeography reports. The operator expects to construct some 1,000 new cell sites, with 111 cities to be added to the network before summer. This comes as part of a network expansion that it expects to complete by the end of 2015. The operator claims that 95 percent of its customers are in its 3G coverage area and called for further network expansion to 98 percent. By the end of 2015, it also expects nine out of ten Norwegians to have access to its 4G services, compared with the current 52 percent.

Last December, Norway’s Post & Telecoms Authority (NPT) announced that Telenor Norge was a winning bidder in its 800-MHz, 900-MHz and 1800Hz spectrum sale. Now that the first phase of the auction is complete, the regulator confirmed that Telenor will get 2×10-MHz in the 800-MHz, 2×5M-Hz in the 900-MHz, and 2×10-MHz in the 1800-MHz band. As for the 800-MHz spectrum, which comes with coverage obligations, Telenor will need to provide mobile broadband services, with average access speeds of at least 2Mbps, to 40 percent of the population within four years of licensing.