The Nittedal Teleport, located outside Oslo, began operations in 1986 with two 13‑metre antennas that carried NRK television to Svalbard and North Sea oil platforms. Early on it also relayed Sweden’s TV1 and TV2 into Norwegian cable networks under a copyright provision that treated the signals as entering local airspace.
Today the complex spans more than 70 decares and hosts over 50 satellite antennas. Around 55 engineers and operators work around the clock to monitor a mix of broadcast, broadband, telephony and critical data traffic, making Nittedal one of the continent’s most extensive satellite earth stations.
Rune Jensen, Acting CEO of Space Norway, said the anniversary “is a story of constant change.” He noted that while the site originally served remote Norwegian communities, it now underpins high‑capacity broadband services for maritime users, offshore installations and a growing array of terrestrial‑satellite hybrid networks.
The teleport’s growth has been closely tied to the THOR satellite fleet. After Telenor acquired the British Satellite Broadcasting Marco Polo 2 satellite in 1992 and renamed it THOR 1, the fleet expanded to include THOR 2 through THOR 6 during the 1990s, supporting the shift from analogue to digital television across the Nordics.
During the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics, Nittedal added extra antennas and mobile uplink units, handling roughly 800,000 minutes of communications traffic from six locations via 16 satellites. The launch of THOR 7 in 2015 introduced Ka‑band capacity that enabled high‑speed broadband for cruise ships and offshore platforms.
Looking ahead, Space Norway plans to integrate satellite and terrestrial networks even more tightly as demand for resilient, high‑capacity broadband rises. The next satellite in the fleet, THOR 8, is slated for launch in 2027, promising additional capacity for the teleport’s expanding service portfolio.