How Telenor Keeps Svalbard Connected at the Edge of the World

Svalbard is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, situated halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole, and is known for its dramatic glaciers, rugged terrain, and a population of polar bears that outnumbers humans. Despite being about as remote as it gets for a functioning community, Svalbard is a premier destination for Arctic adventures such as dog sledding, northern lights viewing, and polar exploration, with Longyearbyen serving as the main settlement and hub alongside communities like Ny Ålesund and Barentsburg. Remarkably, even in these tiny settlements and extreme polar conditions, residents and visitors can make voice calls, send texts, and stream photos, showcasing how modern connectivity thrives in one of the most isolated places on Earth.

The unique telecom landscape of Svalbard is shaped by its governance under the Svalbard Treaty and is part of the Kingdom of Norway. It uses the Norwegian country code (+47) and integrates into Norway’s telecom framework, but due to geography and policy, its connectivity looks very different from the mainland. Svalbard’s remote Arctic setting brings harsh weather and vast areas with no coverage outside major settlements, yet it remains connected to the global internet through the Svalbard Undersea Cable System, a twin submarine fiber link to northern Norway that provides essential bandwidth for both mobile and fixed telecommunications. In its early years, satellite links were vital for communication, but today fiber infrastructure has become the backbone, enabling more stable and higher capacity connectivity.

In Svalbard, Telenor Norge is the dominant mobile network operator and, in practice, the only company physically deploying cellular infrastructure across the archipelago. Telenor has a long and historic presence in Svalbard dating back to the early 1900s, when it provided some of the first telephone and radio services, and today it operates the region’s cellular networks, evolving from GSM to 3G and 4G LTE while also testing 5G for mission critical and emergency use in the uniquely challenging Arctic environment. Early GSM 2G coverage enabled basic voice calls and SMS, followed by the introduction of 3G services in Longyearbyen in the early 2000s, which brought mobile data for the first time. Today, 4G LTE is standard in populated areas such as Longyearbyen, Barentsburg, and Ny Ålesund, making Svalbard home to one of the northernmost LTE networks in the world, and as of 2025, 5G trials are underway for specialized use cases. As a result, residents, researchers, and tourists can access relatively modern mobile data, but only within the limited network footprint of town centres and nearby settlements.

地球上で3番目と4番目に北にある基地局。事業者はTelenor Svalbard pic.twitter.com/j09v53bVu9

— ぱおぱお (@paopao0128) January 31, 2026

In practice, mobile coverage in Svalbard is concentrated around a few key settlements and drops off quickly beyond them. Longyearbyen has the most comprehensive service, with strong 4G LTE coverage throughout the town and nearby areas, supporting calls, data, navigation, messaging, weather checks, emergencies, local transport, and tourism services. Ny Ålesund historically lacked regular mobile coverage due to strict restrictions on radio frequencies around research facilities, but Telenor has since installed a tailored mobile network there, making it the northernmost operational mobile station in the world. Barentsburg is also served by the network, although coverage is generally more limited than in Longyearbyen. Outside these towns there is no mobile service at all, and once you head into the wilderness for activities such as hiking or fieldwork, you are completely offline, which is why satellite communications like Iridium devices remain essential for polar expeditions and remote research.

Other operators can technically work in Svalbard, but almost always through Telenor’s infrastructure. Official licensing records show that a few Norwegian operators, including ICE and Telia Norge, hold mobile spectrum assignments for Svalbard, yet in practice Telenor is the only operator running live cellular infrastructure in the archipelago. Many smaller or virtual operators simply roam on Telenor’s network when in Svalbard, and real world reports from locals and travellers indicate that providers such as ICE rely on Telenor’s base stations because there is no alternative network in town. Telia and others may have spectrum rights on paper, but they do not operate separate physical networks in Svalbard. For visitors using Norwegian or international SIM cards, roaming agreements and coverage can vary, but when a phone does connect, it is effectively using Telenor’s network in these Arctic settlements.

Looking into the future, as Arctic activity continues to grow from tourism to scientific research, Norway is pushing the boundaries of mobile technology in some of the harshest polar conditions on Earth. Ongoing 5G trials aimed at supporting mission critical services such as coordinated rescue operations highlight how Svalbard remains a frontier for telecom innovation. Whether you are planning a journey north or are simply fascinated by communications in extreme environments, Svalbard’s mobile landscape shows that even near the roof of the Earth, staying connected is possible with the right network and careful preparation. 

Automation and Data Driven Network Optimization in Swisscom’s Mobile Strategy

At Ericsson’s rApp DevCon 2025, Swisscom provided a clear view of how automation and data driven network optimisation are becoming core elements of mobile strategy rather than isolated technical initiatives. In a keynote delivered by Francesco Pellegrini, Product Owner for Radio Network Optimisation at Swisscom, the emphasis was on how long term investment in automation, analytics and innovation supports not only network performance, but also the sustained delivery of a high quality mobile customer experience.

For Swisscom, automation is closely tied to its ambition to offer the best possible mobile experience across Switzerland. This ambition has guided network decisions for more than a decade and is reflected in the operator’s consistent top rankings in independent benchmarks. Rather than treating these results as an endpoint, Swisscom views them as a baseline that must be continuously defended as network complexity increases. Data driven insights and automated decision making now play a central role in translating customer experience expectations into concrete network actions.

Advanced analytics allow Swisscom to better understand how customers experience the network in real conditions and to prioritise optimisation accordingly. Automation then becomes the mechanism that allows these insights to be acted upon at scale and with consistency. As mobile networks evolve, with new spectrum layers, denser deployments and growing 5G usage, traditional manual optimisation approaches are no longer sufficient to maintain efficiency or performance.

Swisscom’s journey towards automated radio network optimisation started several years ago with early self organising network capabilities such as antenna tilt optimisation in LTE. Over time, this expanded into a broader portfolio of automation use cases, including open loop optimisation driven by customer experience data and AI supported solutions for performance analysis. Centralised optimisation algorithms for 5G mobility and the introduction of closed loop automation further strengthened this approach. Today, much of the 4G network is optimised through automation, while 5G tuning is already at an advanced stage.

Pellegrini highlighted that achieving this level of automation required more than deploying new tools. One of the main challenges was introducing innovation while continuing to operate one of the highest performing networks in the market. This demanded changes in processes and mindset, particularly within radio optimisation teams. Engineers increasingly moved away from manual, vendor specific tools towards programmable, data centric workflows that support repeatability and scale.

The next phase of Swisscom’s mobile strategy builds on this foundation through its expanded partnership with Ericsson. A key component is the integration of the Ericsson Intelligent Automation Platform into Swisscom’s existing automation framework. This enables coordination between existing use cases while providing access to a standardised rApp environment and to the wider ecosystem. Just as importantly, it allows Swisscom to leverage data already available within its internal data lake to support more advanced optimisation and automation scenarios.

In radio network optimisation, Swisscom is already working with several AI enabled rApps, including anomaly detection, root cause analysis and antenna optimisation capabilities. At the same time, the operator is exploring the development of its own rApps, with radio optimisation as the starting point. The ambition, however, extends beyond optimisation alone. Network deployment and network healing are also seen as key areas where automation can deliver measurable benefits, particularly through zero touch approaches that accelerate cell acceptance and improve network health monitoring.

A central enabler of this strategy is the evolution of skills within Swisscom’s engineering teams. Radio engineers are increasingly expected to combine deep domain expertise with capabilities in coding, data handling and AI. While radio knowledge remains the foundation, closer collaboration with internal data science teams is becoming essential. This balance allows Swisscom to develop more sophisticated automation use cases without diluting its core engineering strengths.

The keynote also underlined the importance of open ecosystems in sustaining differentiation. Swisscom sees value in combining vendor developed rApps with innovations from a broader community, enabled by a standardised automation platform. This approach supports experimentation, accelerates innovation and reduces dependency on bespoke integrations, all while maintaining control over network performance and quality.

Swisscom’s experience illustrates that automation and data driven network optimisation are not short term initiatives, but long term strategic capabilities. As network complexity continues to grow, the ability to combine customer experience insights with intelligent, coordinated automation will be critical to maintaining leadership. Swisscom’s mobile strategy shows how these elements can be embedded into daily operations, positioning the operator to continue delivering a high quality mobile experience in an increasingly demanding environment.

The embedded keynote video provides additional depth and context, offering valuable insight into how Swisscom is translating automation concepts into real world operational practice.

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Cuba’s Mobile Connectivity in 2026

Cuba’s mobile landscape remains one of the most distinctive in the Western Hemisphere. The entire mobile sector revolves around a single state-owned operator, ETECSA, which provides virtually all mobile and internet services on the island through its Cubacel brand. With no competing mobile operators, ETECSA alone determines the pace of technological upgrades, the reach of mobile coverage, and the affordability of data for the Cuban public.

Despite the country’s economic challenges, mobile connectivity has grown steadily. Data from GSMA Intelligence shows that there were 8.14 million cellular mobile connections in Cuba at the end of 2025. For perspective, many people make use of more than one mobile connection, so it’s not unusual for mobile connection figures to significantly exceed figures for total population.

For example, the same person might have one mobile connection for personal use, but also use a separate mobile connection for work activities. The rise of eSIMs has made this even easier over recent years.

However, this practice hasn’t yet pushed mobile connectivity rates in Cuba beyond 100 percent, and GSMA Intelligence’s numbers indicate that mobile connections in Cuba were equivalent to 74.5 percent of the total population in October 2025.

Looking at trends over time, the number of mobile connections in Cuba increased by 280 thousand (+3.6 percent) between the end of 2024 and the end of 2025.

Meanwhile, GSMA Intelligence’s data suggests that 91.4 percent of mobile connections in Cuba can now be considered “broadband”, which means that they connect via 3G, 4G, or 5G mobile networks.

However, devices that connect to “broadband” mobile networks do not necessarily use cellular mobile data, for example, some subscription plans may only include access to voice and SMS services, so this broadband figure should not be considered a proxy for mobile internet use.

The most visible technological improvement in recent years has been the expansion of 4G. ETECSA devoted much of its investment to building out LTE coverage, especially in Havana and major tourism corridors. The company has stated that most active mobile devices are now capable of connecting to 4G networks. Nevertheless, everyday users continue to report congestion, fluctuating speeds, and occasional outages, often tied to power shortages or infrastructure problems. These conditions reflect the broader strain on the country’s electrical grid and telecommunications backbone.

When it comes to 5G, Cuba is not yet on the map for a nationwide commercial rollout. Despite advances elsewhere in Latin America, independent observers and telecom trackers show no evidence of large-scale 5G adoption in Cuba. The government and ETECSA appear focused on strengthening existing infrastructure rather than pushing aggressively toward 5G.

Several factors explain this cautious approach. ETECSA has publicly acknowledged the difficulty of securing the foreign currency required to purchase telecommunications equipment and maintain supplier relationships. This financial pressure slows network upgrades and forces the operator to prioritize repairs and essential improvements over large-scale transitions to new technology. Persistent power instability also affects the feasibility of deploying higher-capacity networks, as mobile towers and backbone links are only as reliable as the grid that supports them. Another constraint is affordability. With average wages low and data plans often benchmarked to hard currency, premium services like 5G would be inaccessible for much of the population under current conditions. Recent controversial changes to mobile data pricing have sparked public frustration as ETECSA seeks to balance affordability with the need to fund network operations.

Tourists visiting Cuba can access the mobile network through Cubacel tourist SIMs or international eSIM services, but all traffic still routes through ETECSA’s infrastructure. Coverage in Havana and major resort areas tends to be more stable than in rural provinces, yet overall performance varies depending on congestion, time of day, and local power conditions.

Looking ahead, the most useful indicators of change will come from official ETECSA communications, regulatory decisions about spectrum, and any announcements involving international equipment suppliers. Improvements in Cuba’s electrical grid and its international bandwidth would also play a major role in making a future 5G rollout economically and technically viable.

In short, Cuba enters 2026 with roughly eight million mobile lines, a steadily improving but still congested 4G network, and no commercial 5G service on the horizon. The country’s mobile future will depend on financial stability, infrastructure resilience, and the ability of its sole operator to navigate both domestic limitations and global technology trends.