Norway’s cyber roots began in 1971 when it became the first non-English speaking country to access the world wide web. Similar to other Scandinavian countries, Norway has an exceptionally sophisticated telecommunications market with high broadband and mobile penetration rates. The country’s digital media sector is also well-developed.
According to Norwegian statistics, in 2013 nearly 100% of all Norwegian citizens had access to the internet. In 2012 the country was ranked 8th in the world for having 84.6 broadband subscriptions per every 100 citizens. A 2011 report from Akamai showed that the city of Lyse, Norway had an average internet connection speed of 8.1 Mbps, which at the time was the fastest internet speed in Europe.
A September 2016 report from Akamai showed Norway had an average internet connection speed of 20.1 Mbps. This is second only to long-reigning technological juggernaut South Korea, who had a 27 Mbps average connection speed during this time. This means Norways internet speeds have increased by 55 percent from previous years, and this is only expected to continue. By moving past Sweden in speed, Norway now has the fastest internet in Europe.
Fiber optic cables make up a majority of Norway’s internet infrastructure. Nearly every Norwegian city has access to internet speeds from 2 Mbps up to 10,000 Mbps. Because most internet service providers are connected to the Norwegian Internet Exchange (NIX), the competition between providers is fierce. A basic ADSL connection can cost as little as $30 a month.
Apart from its well-refined infrastructure and fast internet speeds, Norway is also a great hosting location due to the country’s respect for internet privacy. Norway has a constitution and laws that protect freedom of speech and of the press, and the Norwegian government is generally viewed as respecting these laws. A report from OpenNet Initiative (ONI) back in 2009 supports this notion by indicating that there was zero evidence of internet filtering (censorship).
The only form of internet filtering comes in the form of a DNS filter used by Norwegian ISP’s which blocks any sites related to child pornogrophy, similar to what Denmark has in place. Another form of mild censorship came in September 2015 when the Oslo District Court ordered internet providers to block domains belonging to seven file-sharing websites, with The Pirate Bay being the biggest name on that list. Similar action was taken against eight additional file-sharing websites in June 2016.
The top-level domain internet country code for Norway is the .no extension, and the country is not a member of the European Union.
Convinced of the benefits that come with hosting your VPS in Norway? Great! Feel free to check out our list of the best Norwegian VPS providers on the web.
