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Nkom’s “clear warning” on the 2G shutdown

The regulator sees no reason to stop Telia’s 2025 shutdown, considering it a learning opportunity ahead of the final switch-off of all 2G services in 2027

Nkom published a study considering the potential impacts of the 2G shutdown on critical industries

On 7 July 2025, the Norwegian Communications Authority (Nkom) issued a “clear warning” to stakeholders in relevant industries to act quickly in preparing for the shutdown of 2G networks. The statement highlights the regulator’s recent research, published on 1 July 2025, into the state of device transition in a number of critical industries, including healthcare and alarm systems. The report is Nkom’s response to a direction issued by the Norwegian Parliament, directed via the Ministry of Digitalisation and Public Administration, to carry out an impact assessment on devices critical to public safety and emergency preparedness that may still be dependent on 2G. Though Telenor has announced its plans to delay the final closure of its 2G network to 2027, Telia is set to begin shutting down geographic segments of its network in August 2025, with plans to finish the process by the end of the year. John-Eivind Velure (CEO, Nkom) is nonetheless urging stakeholders and consumers not to treat Telenor’s delay as a cushion and instead replace remaining 2G equipment urgently.

Costs and uncertainty around 4G coverage have delayed some stakeholders from upgrading devices

In its report, Nkom finds that most relevant stakeholders have a plan to transition from legacy equipment and, in instances where that is not yet the case, there are readily available solutions that could be adopted. Summarily, the regulator does not believe there is cause to intervene before Telia’s shutdown process begins and emphasises that the operator’s phased approach will allow for learning and adjustments along the way. Among the public and private sector respondents to Nkom’s survey, the healthcare, energy and water and sewerage sectors reported having the highest number of legacy devices still in operation. These stakeholders generally reported that delays in their migration were due to plans to phase out legacy devices altogether, concerns that the quality of 4G coverage could not match 2G coverage and issues with managing the financial burden of replacing devices. Nkom found that a majority of stakeholders with remaining legacy IoT devices use Telenor’s network (and therefore have additional time to complete migrations) and that the stakeholders which do use Telia services are largely aware of the pending shutdown and have plans to migrate services. For the few respondents without plans for migrating devices with Telia SIMs, the operator is working to proactively follow up to support timely transitions.

Telia’s 2G shutdown presents learning opportunities in advance of Telenor’s own switch-off in 2027

Regarding the specific devices on remaining legacy connections, Nkom found that telecare devices and alarms, remotely controlled medicine dispensers, lift alarms and eCall devices are among the most common still in use. While some devices, including telecare alarms, will only lose partial functionality with the 2G shutdown, other devices including lift alarms will lose total function and could impact public safety as a result. However, the regulator finds that sectoral stakeholders are working to manage this risk effectively and have access to temporary solutions – such as switching from a Telia to a Telenor SIM temporarily – to enable a smooth transition. Given Telia’s commitment to restore 2G services if the shutdown poses a risk to life and health, Nkom stated that it does not believe it has a need to exercise its powers to mandate a delay in the operator’s network shutdown at this time. The regulator considers Telia’s shutdown an opportunity to gain further learnings to inform Telenor’s process and a chance to build and maintain greater momentum in communicating the importance of upgrading devices as soon as possible.