Editing Nordic Mobile Telephone (section)

== History ==
NMT stands for ''Nordisk MobilTelefoni'' or ''Nordiska MobilTelefoni-gruppen''.

[[File:NMT mobil1 high.jpg|thumb|An NMT phone from the early 1980s made by Norwegian-based Simonsen Radiofabrikk]]
The NMT network was opened in Sweden and Norway in 1981, and in Denmark and Finland in 1982. It was a response to the increasing congestion and heavy requirements of the manual mobile phone networks: [[Autoradiopuhelin|ARP]] (150&nbsp;M[[Hertz|Hz]]) in Finland, [[MTD (mobile network)|MTD]] (450&nbsp;MHz) in Sweden and Denmark, and [[Offentlig Landmobil Telefoni|OLT]] in Norway. Iceland joined in 1986. However, Ericsson introduced the first commercial service in Saudi Arabia on 1 September 1981 to 1,200 users, as a pilot test project, one month before they did the same in Sweden. By 1985 the network had grown to 110,000 subscribers in [[Scandinavia]] and Finland, 63,300 in Norway alone, which made it the world's largest mobile network at the time.<ref>{{cite web|last=Nordsveen|first=Arve M|title=Mobiltelefonens historie i Norge|url=http://telemuseum.no/mambo/content/view/29/1/|publisher=Norsk Telemuseum|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070213045903/http://telemuseum.no/mambo/content/view/29/1/|archive-date=13 February 2007|language=no|date=28 November 2005}}</ref>

The NMT network has mainly been used in the Nordic countries, [[Baltic countries]], Switzerland, France, Netherlands, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Turkey, Croatia, Bosnia, Russia, Ukraine and in Asia. The introduction of digital mobile networks such as [[GSM]] has reduced the popularity of NMT and the Nordic countries have suspended their NMT networks. In Estonia the NMT network was shut down in December 2000. In Finland [[TeliaSonera]]'s NMT network was suspended on 31 December 2002. Norway's last NMT network was suspended on 31 December 2004. Sweden's [[TeliaSonera]] NMT network was suspended on 31 December 2007. The NMT network (450&nbsp;MHz) however has one big advantage over GSM which is the range; this advantage is valuable in big but sparsely populated countries such as Iceland. In Iceland, the GSM network reaches 98% of the country's population but only a small proportion of its land area. The NMT system however reaches most of the country and a lot of the surrounding waters, thus the network was popular with fishermen and those traveling in the vast empty mainland. In Iceland the NMT service was stopped on 1 September 2010, when [[Síminn]] closed down its NMT network.

[[File:Ericsson Hotline NMT 900 "Olivia" 001-02.jpg|thumb|Ericsson Hotline NMT-900 phone from 1995]]
In Denmark, Norway and [[Sweden]] the NMT-450 frequencies have been auctioned off to Swedish [[Nordisk Mobiltelefon (Sweden)|Nordisk Mobiltelefon]] which later became '''Ice.net''' and renamed to [[Nordisk Mobiltelefon (Sweden)|Net 1]] that built a digital network using CDMA 450. During 2015, the network has been migrated to 4G.

France also developed an NMT network in 1988 (in parallel with [[Radiocom 2000]]) but with slight variations. As a result, it could not roam with other NMT networks around the world.<ref>{{cite web |author1=Forde, Timothy K. |author2=Macaluso, Irene |author3=Doyle, Linda E. |title=Exclusive Sharing & Virtualization of the Cellular Network |url=https://www.tara.tcd.ie/bitstream/handle/2262/67286/928182127.pdf |publisher=[[University of Dublin, Trinity College]]}}</ref>

In Russia Uralwestcom shut down their NMT network on 1 September 2006 and Sibirtelecom on 10 January 2008. Skylink, subsidiary company of [[Tele2 Russia]] operates NMT-450 network as of 2016 in [[Arkhangelsk Oblast]] and [[Perm Krai]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20160206091401/http://skylink.ru/perm/main/plans/arhiv/oblastnoy-statsionarnyy__fl__nmt.html Областной-Стационарный (ФЛ)_NMT]</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://skylink.ru/perm/main/plans/arhiv/oblastnoy-statsionarnyy__yul__nmt.html |title=Областной-Стационарный (ЮЛ)_NMT / Skylink |access-date=5 February 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160206105941/http://skylink.ru/perm/main/plans/arhiv/oblastnoy-statsionarnyy__yul__nmt.html |archive-date=6 February 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref> These networks are used in sparsely populated areas with long distance. License for the provision of services was valid until 2021.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://rkn.gov.ru/communication/register/license/?id=138347 |title=Роскомнадзор – Реестр лицензий в области связи<!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=5 February 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160206082727/http://rkn.gov.ru/communication/register/license/?id=138347 |archive-date=6 February 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== Legacy and Influence ===
NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephony) not only pioneered mobile communications across the Nordic region, but also laid the groundwork for modern mobile network technology worldwide. Its open standard allowed manufacturers to innovate rapidly, leading to a competitive market and accelerating mobile adoption across Europe and Asia. Critically, NMT’s success and design principles directly influenced the development of the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) standard, which would soon become the world’s most widely used mobile technology. The European telecommunications community applied lessons from NMT—such as open interfaces and scalable coverage—to the development of GSM, which debuted commercially in 1991 and rapidly expanded to cover hundreds of countries.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Our history |url=https://www.gsma.com/about-us/who-we-are/our-history/ |access-date=2025-05-22 |website=About Us |language=en-GB}}</ref> According to technology analysts, the far-reaching coverage of NMT’s 450 MHz band set benchmarks for mobile reach in remote and rural areas, influencing not only GSM but also the later rollout of LTE and 5G networks. Today, NMT’s legacy is evident in the seamless connectivity, international roaming, and user-focused features we expect from mobile networks—making it a true milestone in the evolution of wireless technology.<ref>{{Cite web |title=From 1G to 5G: The Evolution of Mobile Communication Networks |url=https://thinkpalm.com/blogs/from-1g-to-5g-the-evolution-of-mobile-communication-networks-2/ |access-date=2025-05-22 |website=thinkpalm.com}}</ref>