Telenor third quarter 2005 - significant growth

"We are still seeing strong revenue growth in this quarter, mainly generated by the mobile operations. In line with our strategy, and as a result of transactions made during October, we are now able to consolidate DTAC in Thailand, with its 8.3 million subscriptions, from the fourth quarter this year," said CEO Jon Fredrik Baksaas.

EBITDA before other income and expenses was NOK 6,598 million in the third quarter of 2005, compared to NOK 5,672 million in the third quarter of 2004. The correspondingly adjusted EBITDA margin was 37.4 per cent in the third quarter of 2005, compared to 36.3 per cent in the same quarter last year. The increase in margins was primarily generated by the mobile operations.

Capital expenditure amounted to NOK 3,720 million in the third quarter of 2005, compared to NOK 3,140 million in the third quarter of 2004, when an ownership interest in a new satellite was acquired. Capital expenditure increased primarily as a result of significant customer uptake in the international mobile operations.

In the third quarter of 2005, Telenor acquired 7.43 million of its own shares for a total amount of NOK 425 million.

Mobile operations

The mobile operations continued to show strong growth, maintaining their market positions. The number of mobile subscriptions in operations where Telenor has ownership interests increased by 7.4 million in the third quarter of 2005, reaching 74.5 million, whereas the number of mobile subscriptions in consolidated operations increased by 3.1 million, reaching a total of 27.9 million. In Norway, 49,000 new mobile subscriptions were added in the third quarter of 2005. Measured in numbers of subscriptions, Telenor's estimated market share in Norway was 56 per cent at the end of the third quarter of 2005, in line with the end of the second quarter of 2005.

The subscription growth in the international mobile operations was strong, particularly in Kyivstar in Ukraine. Compared to the third quarter of 2004, Sonofon in Denmark strengthened its customer base, with 11,000 net adds during the quarter, ARPU, revenues and EBITDA At the end of the quarter, Telenor Pakistan had 1.2 million subscriptions, and an estimated market share of seven per cent. GrameenPhone in Bangladesh, DiGi.Com in Malaysia and Pannon GSM in Hungary have all seen significant customer growth in the third quarter.

Fixed

Cybercity in Denmark and Bredbandsbolaget in Sweden, which were acquired on 5 July 2005 and 8 July 2005, respectively, were consolidated in Fixed as of those dates. In Fixed-Norway, revenues decreased by 3.1 per cent. As a consequence of current revenue trends within the fixed-line operation in Norway, Telenor will continue its efforts to achieve cost reductions and improvements in all parts of the operation. The overall goal is to reduce the cost-base in Fixed by NOK 1.5 billion, with full effect from 2007, compared to 2004.

During the third quarter of 2005, the number of ADSL subscriptions in Norway increased by 29,000, reaching 444,000. Telenor's estimated market share for ADSL was 59 per cent at the end of the third quarter of 2005, compared to 60 per cent at the end of the second quarter of 2005. Measured in traffic minutes, Telenor's estimated market share for fixed-line traffic was 66 per cent at the end of the third quarter of 2005, a reduction of one percentage point from the third quarter of 2004.

Broadcast

Compared to the third quarter of 2004, revenues from Broadcast increased by 5 per cent in the third quarter of 2005, reaching NOK 1,392 million. At the end of the third quarter of 2005, Broadcast had 876,000 DTH subscribers, 636,000 cable TV subscribers, and 53,000 Internet subscribers for cable TV.

Contacts:

Chief Press Spokesman Dag Melgaard, Tel: +47 67 89 26 71 or +47 901 92 000

Senior Vice President Communications Kai Rosenberg, Tel: +47 915 54 357

To the editorial offices:

Press and analyst conference

Telenor will present its financial results for the third quarter of 2005 on Thursday 27 October 2005 at 09:00 hrs Norwegian time/CET. The presentations, which will be broadcast live over the Internet, will be held in Auditorium A, Telenor Expo Visitors Centre at Fornebu near Oslo. CEO Jon Fredrik Baksaas and CFO Trond Westlie will conduct the presentations. All figures will be published on Telenor's website at 08:00 CET. All presentations will be given in English.

Internet and mobile broadcast

The press and analyst conference will be broadcast live over the Internet, and will also be available as a recording after the conference. During the live broadcast written questions may be submitted over the Internet. In addition, the conference will be available live, and as a recording, on mobile phones with 3G, GPRS or EDGE. For more details, please refer to www.telenor.com/ir .

Conference call and Q&A

The press and analyst conference will also be available as a conference call. To participate, please register before the conference starts by calling (+47) 800 80 119 (from Norway) or (+47) 23 00 04 00 (from Norway or abroad). For more details, please refer to www.telenor.com/ir.

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