Telecommunications in Iceland

Telecommunications in Iceland is a diversified market.

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 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 of the island connected Reykjavik to Seyðisfjörður via Vik in the south of the island. A teleprinter service was introduced to the island in 1930.

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. 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 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 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 communcations. 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 soley 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.

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.

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

Analogue PSTN/POTS and ISDN telephone services were phased out from 2020-2024, replaced by VoIP services. Copper-based DSL services continue to be available. In April 2024, Míla accounced plans for a complete copper shut down by 2028, including DSL services, fully transitioning Icelandic telecoms to fibre based services.

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 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 onto Scotland, 32 telephone circuits (1961-1987)
 * ICECAN, coaxial cable, to Greenland onto Canada, 24 telephone circuits (1961-1987)
 * Great Northern Telegraph Co., Seyðisfjörður to Faroe Islands onto Shetland Islands to UK (1906-1962)

Data centres

 * THOR Data Center ehf
 * DataCell ehf
 * Verne Global
 * Basis ehf

Internet service providers
The largest Internet service providers in Iceland:


 * 1) Síminn (Síminn hf)
 * 2) Vodafone Iceland (Sýn hf)
 * 3) Nova (Nova hf)
 * 4) Hringiðan (Hringiðan ehf / Vortex Inc)
 * 5) 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.

Daily newspapers

 * Morgunblaðið

Weekly and bi-weekly Newspapers

 * DV
 * Viðskiptablaðið
 * Bændablaðið
 * Stundin

English Language Newspapers

 * The Reykjavík Grapevine

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. 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

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. Síminn, the operator of the POTS/PSTN network has indicated that a complete shut down of the POTS network is ongoing and is due to be completed in 2023. Existing landline customers will be transitioned over to VoIP services.

Source: Statistics Iceland (statice.is)

Mobile
As of 2022 there are 521,722 active mobile subscriptions in use in Iceland. 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G services are operated by 3 mobile operators. NOVA was the first network to offer 4G in 2013 and first to offer 5G in 2020. Síminn and Vodafone launched their 4G service in 2013 and 5G in 2021. 2G services are due to be shut down in 2024 and 3G in 2025. The NMT (1G) network was shut down in 2010.

Source: Statistics Iceland (statice.is)

Telephone calling
Source: Statistics Iceland (statice.is)

Telephone numbers
There are no area codes in Iceland, and all telephone numbers have seven digits. The international dialling code is +354. Numbers of mobile phones tend to begin with either 6xx xxxx, 7xx xxxx or 8xx xxxx, while landline numbers starting with 5xx xxxx (in Reykjavík) or 4xx xxxx (outside Reykjavík).

Television
Television in Iceland began in September 1966.

Source: Statistics Iceland (statice.is)