Telephone Landline
Every dwelling in Norway has phone cabling installed, by law. This can be either an analogue line or an ISDN line. It is called fasttelefoni (fixed telephone).
Telenor provides a landline phone service in Norway. You can use any telephone handset from elsewhere in the world on this line, but may have to change the cable from the phone to the socket.
The confusing part of telephone lines is that you can now get phone services using ADSL and fiber optic cabling, as internet phone services through your internet subscription.
If you decide to have an ADSL line from Telenor, you can choose to have a phone line as well. This gives you a Norwegian phone number. You can also have a Norwegian phone number through Phonzo, who provide free or cheap calls via the internet. (See our Internet Telephone page.)
If your house has a fiber optic line and modem installed, you can have a phone service from Lyse. Neither option can be used during a power cut.
You will need to buy your own telephone handsets for either service.
You can apply for telephone and internet services with Telenor with just your date of birth, but you have to do it filled in by hand and then return the application as a signed fax. If you have a person number, it can be done online.
If you call Telenor on 05000, it is only recorded in Norwegian. They will ask you to speak, but just press #. When you get a real person on the line, they usually speak good English!