Telecommunications in Iceland

Telecommunications in Iceland is a diversified market. Iceland has a highly developed telecommunications sector with modern infrastructure. Multiple wholesale and retail providers are operated in a competitive market. As of 2024, Iceland's telecom infrastructure is fully digitised and mostly fibre based, with 93% of households having full-fibre availability. Landlines are based on VoIP technology. Mobile telecoms in Iceland adheres to the GSM standard and 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G services are available, as well as a TETRA network for emergency communications. Iceland is connected by four submarine cables to both Europe and North America. Broadcasting is based on DVB-T2 standard for television and FM for radio. There are a few printed newspapers, although most mass media is consumed online. Postal service is provided under universal obligation by the state-owned Iceland Post, but other private postal companies also operate.^[1]

History

The first submarine telegraph cable connection to the British Isles reached Seyðisfjörður in Iceland in 1906 by the Great Northern Telegraph Co. Around the same time telephone communication was opened between Reykjavik and nearby Hafnarfjörður. By 1911 a telephone line connected Reykjavik in the west of Iceland to Seyðisfjörður in the east via Akureyri in the north. A line to the Vestmannaeyjar was constructed a few years later, and by 1929 a line along the south coast of the island connected Reykjavik to Seyðisfjörður via Vík. A teleprinter service was introduced to the island in 1930.^[2]

As of 1933, there were 55 telephones for every 1000 inhabitants on the island. The first short-wave radio station was established in Iceland in 1935–36, linking the country up to international radio-telephone services. By January 1936 there were 106 radio-licence holders for every 1000 Icelandic inhabitants.^[3] Due to the Icelandic naming system, people were listed by their first name in the telephone directory, and not by their last name (which is usually a patronym).

The first automatic telephone exchanges opened in Reykjavík and Hafnafjörður in 1932, and by 1976 all towns had automatic telephone exchanges.

In 1962, the SCOTICE (to Scotland) and ICECAN (Canada) coaxial submarine telephone cables were put into use, greatly increasing reliability and capacity of international telephone and telegraph traffic as well as opening up telex services for the first time. These new cables rendered the original 1906 telegraph cable obselete and it was taken out of use. They had a capacity of 32 and 24 telephone circuits respectively.

In 1980, the first satellite ground station was opened in Iceland, called Skyggnir. Initially connecting to the Intelsat system, most international telephone and telex traffic now used satellite communications. These new ground stations enabled International Direct Dialling, as well as allowing Iceland to access time-shifted as well as live television broadcast material from abroad, including Iceland's participation in Eurovision in 1986. Iceland's first internet connection was via satellite in 1986 with a 300–1200 bit/s UUCP link to Amsterdam. By 1987 the older coaxial submarine cables SCOTICE and ICECAN were taken out of use after a secondary backup ground station opened near Höfn in eastern Iceland, leaving Iceland solely dependent on satellite communications for international traffic during this period.

The first digital telephone exchange was opened in 1984 and all telephone exchanges were digitalised in the country by 1995. By 1986 all rural shared party lines were upgraded to individual lines.

In 1986, mobile telephony was available for the first time using an NMT 1G (first generation) network, followed by GSM services in 1994 and SMS messaging in 1997, followed by MMS in 2003.

In 1991, a fibre ring was completed that circles the country, roughly following the route of Iceland's ring road (Route 1), passing through most towns and cities. It was constructed by the Icelandic Government and NATO to link radar stations of the Iceland Air Defence System, as well as to enhance domestic telecommunications. It consists of 8 fibres and is still in use as of 2023.

In 1994, the first fibre submarine cable, CANTAT-3, reached Iceland linking it to Canada, Germany, UK and Denmark with a capacity of 7.5 Gbit/s. This greatly increased bandwidth and allowed internet connections to become more widely available.^[4]

As bandwidth and reliability demands grew in the 21st century, more fibre submarine cables were launched to Iceland: FARICE in 2003 to the UK and Faroe Islands; DANICE in 2009 to Denmark; Greenland Connect in 2009 to Greenland and Canada and lastly IRIS in 2023 to Ireland. With multiple redundant submarine fibre routes, the satellite ground station Skyggnir was taken out of use in 2005 and CANTAT-3 became defunct in 2009.^[5]

In the mid-1990s, the telecom market was opened to competition, breaking the state-owned Iceland Telecom's monopoly, and it was later privatised in 2005.

In 1994, dial-up internet services became available; in 1999 ADSL services launched, followed by VDSL in 2009. Fibre to the home services began rolling out in 2004 and had expanded to 90% of the population by 2022.

In 2010, the NMT (1G) mobile network was shut down. 3G launched in 2006, 4G in 2013 and 5G in 2020.

In 2018, telegram services were discontinued.^[6]

Analogue PSTN/POTS and ISDN telephone services (along with dial-up internet) were phased out from 2020–2024, replaced by VoIP services. Copper-based DSL services continue to be available.^[7] In April 2024, Míla accounced plans for a complete copper shut down by 2028, including DSL services,^[8] fully transitioning Icelandic telecoms to fibre based services.^[9] 2G and 3G services are due to be shut down by year end 2025.^[10]

Submarine connectivity

Current internet and telephone services rely on submarine communications cables for external traffic, with a total capacity of 60.2 Tbit/s.

Current

FARICE-1, 2 fiber pairs, with lit^{[clarification needed]} 11 Tbit/s to the United Kingdom and the Faroe Islands laid in 2003
DANICE, 4 fiber pairs, with lit 36.4 Tbit/s to Denmark, laid in 2009.
Greenland Connect, 2 fiber pairs, with lit 12.8 Tbit/s to Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada and Greenland, laid in 2009.
IRIS, 6 fiber pairs, with 108 Tbit/s initial capacity to Galway, Ireland, laid in 2022 and opened in March 2023.

Former

CANTAT-3, 3 fiber pairs, with capacity of 7.5 Gbit/s to Denmark, Germany, Faroe Islands and Canada (1994–2009)
SCOTICE, coaxial cable, to Faroe Islands and from there to Scotland, 32 telephone circuits (1961–1987)
ICECAN, coaxial cable, to Greenland and onward to Canada, 24 telephone circuits (1961–1987)
Great Northern Telegraph Co., Seyðisfjörður to Faroe Islands and onward to Shetland Islands (UK) (1906–1962)

Services

Internet

Data centres

Internet service providers

The largest Internet service providers in Iceland:

Síminn (Síminn hf)
Vodafone Iceland (Sýn hf)
Nova (Nova hf)
Hringiðan (Hringiðan ehf / Vortex Inc)
Hringdu (Hringdu ehf)

Internet hosting service

Iceland has numerous internet hosting services:

(1984 ehf)
Advania (Advania ehf)
(Davíð og Golíat ehf)
FlokiNET (FlokiNET ehf)
Síminn (Síminn hf)
(Netmiðlar ehf)
(Netvistun ehf)
(Nethönnun ehf)
TechSupport á Íslandi (TechSupport á Íslandi ehf)
(Tölvuþjónustan Geymir sf)
Vodafone Iceland (Sýn hf)
Vortex (Hringiðan ehf)

Internet exchange points

Iceland has two Internet exchange points. They are the Reykjavik Internet Exchange (RIX) and Múli-IXP.

Mail

Print

Radio

Iceland use FM and longwave radio broadcasts. Nationwide networks which cover the whole country include public radio stations Rás 1 and Rás 2 as well as Bylgjan. Other commercial broadcasters mostly operate in the Reykjavík area, and many are available in more populated areas. There are no current plans to implement DAB broadcasting, due to ample bandwidth and cost.^[11] All FM stations are also available over internet radio, with some smaller stations being only distributed over internet radio. Longwave radio service is operated by public broadcaster RÚV, however the longwave service will be completely decommissioned in 2024 (with one transmitter site already decommissioned in 2023).

Public broadcasters:

RÚV (nationwide coverage)
- Rás 1
- Rás 2
BBC World Service

Commercial broadcasters

Bylgjan (nationwide coverage)
K100
FM 957
X-ið
Suðurland FM
101
Útvarp Saga
KissFM
Gullbylgjan
Léttbylgjan
Íslenska Bylgjan
Retro 89.5
Flashback 91.9
Lindin

Telephone

Landline

As of 2022 there are 116,142 landlines in use in Iceland of which 80,106 are VoIP, 34,527 are PSTN and 644 are ISDN. The number of landlines in Iceland has been slowly decreasing since their peak in 2001 at 196,528. Meanwhile, the number of VoIP subscriptions have been rising, from 58,311 in 2016 to 76,122 in 2018. 2018 was the first year that VoIP subscriptions surpassed PSTN subscriptions.^[12] Analogue PSTN/POTS and ISDN telephone services were phased out from 2020-2024, replaced by VoIP services.^[7]

Year	Total (PSTN)	Total	Change
2010	132,069	152,895	-17.29%
2009	135,969	184,851	-4.48%
2008	140,858	193,512	3.66%
2007	134,622	186,688	-1.00%
2006	131,693	188,575	-2.72%
2005	134,258	193,852	1.77%
2004	133,504	190,478	-1.08%
2003	135,402	192,552	2.42%
2002	132,353	187,999	-4.34%
2001	139,300	196,528	0.10%
2000	141,330	196,336	6.14%
1999	145,769	184,973	6.51%
1998	148,817	173,673	5.01%
1997	151,700	165,390	5.47%
1996	153,551	156,807	5.49%
1995	148,645	148,645	0.23%
1994	148,300	148,300	0.00%

Source: Statistics Iceland (statice.is)

Mobile

As of 2022, there are 521,722 active mobile subscriptions in use in Iceland. 4G and 5G services are operated by 3 mobile operators, and 2G and 3G are still in operation until 2025. NOVA was the first network to offer 4G in 2013^[13] and first to offer 5G in 2020.^[14] Síminn and Vodafone launched their 4G service in 2013 and 5G in 2021. 2G and 3G services are due to be shut down in 2025. The NMT (1G) network was shut down in 2010.^[15]

Year	NMT 450	GSM/UMTS	Change
2010	–	341,077	3.38%
2009	9,783	329,932	1.63%
2008	12,291	324,631	4.12%
2007	15,854	311,785	2.22%
2006	17,827	305,013	7.20%
2005	19,480	284,521	5.35%
2004	21,300	270,072	5.35%
2003	23,302	256,368	8.94%
2002	25,100	235,338	6.38%
2001	26,900	221,231	17.91%
2000	27,268	187,628	39.10%
1999	27,136	134,886	71.68%
1998	26,056	78,569	92.26%
1997	24,880	40,866	73.20%
1996	22,707	23,595	143.20%
1995	21,181	9,702	357.86%
1994	19,726	2,119
1993	17,409
1992	15,164
1991	12,889
1990	10,010
1989	7,893
1988	6,519
1987	5,008
1986	2,106

Voice calls
Year	Thousands of minutes	Change
2010	742,791	4.91%
2009	708,040	3.42%
2008	684,649	32.40%
2007	517,105	14.81%
2006	450,422	9.61%
2005	410,940	2.99%
2004	399,017	12.59%
2003	354,389	3.33%
2002	342,962	19.63%
2001	286,685	16.30%
2000	246,514	24.83%
1999	197,475	39.49%
1998	141,566	0.00%

Text messages (SMS)
Year	SMS	Change
2010	171,931	17.27%
2009	146.615	2.37%
2008	143.216	5.72%
2007	135.474	9.89%
2006	123.285	-0.34%
2005	123.711	-19.79%
2004	154.236	8.31%
2003	142.403	14.43%
2002	124.451	37.97%
2001	90.201	46.48%
2000	61.581	0.00%

Text messages (MMS)
Year	MMS	Change
2010	1,355	3.12%
2009	1,314	39.64%
2008	941	-34.43%
2007	1,435	92.62%
2006	745	180.08%
2005	266	0.00%