TELENOR SATELLITE SERVICES ANNOUNCES NEXT GENERATION INMARSAT HIGH-SPEED DATA COMMUNICATIONS SERVICE

Telenor Satellite Services will be among the first to offer Inmarsats new Regional Broadband Global Area Network (Regional BGAN), due for launch by the end of this year.

TELENOR SATELLITE SERVICES ANNOUNCES NEXT GENERATION INMARSAT HIGH-SPEED DATA COMMUNICATIONS SERVICE

Always On" Communications Link From the Preferred Global Inmarsat Provider Is Fast, Convenient and Cost Effective

OSLO, Norway and BETHESDA, Maryland (October 2, 2002)-Telenor Satellite Services announced today that it will be among the first to offer Inmarsats new Regional Broadband Global Area Network (Regional BGAN), due for launch by the end of this year.

Regional BGAN offers reliable, 24-hour a day Internet Protocol (IP) connectivity at data speeds of up to 144kbps via a secure channel. The service will be available in Europe, Asia, and northern and central Africa.
The service will afford enterprise customers, governments, global and regional businesses, as well as educational facilities the ability to securely extend their corporate networks and access the Internet, via satellite, regardless of the local communications infrastructure.

Unlike other services that charge a per minute connection fee, Telenors Regional BGAN requires the user to pay for only the data sent and received. Regional BGAN offers the additional benefit of using notebook-sized, highly portable satellite IP modems.

Inmarsats Regional BGAN solution provides simple, more cost-effective, portable satellite communications, at access speeds more than twice as fast as General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) to LANs, WANs, intranets, and the Internet, regardless of the availability or reliability of local terrestrial networks," says Michael Butler, managing director of Inmarsat Limited. Regional BGAN delivers a quantum leap forward for the mobile satellite communications industry."

Telenor offers one of the satellite industrys most comprehensive and robust portfolios of communications services via satellite. The advent of Inmarsat Regional BGAN is the next step in our ever-expanding line of services that make 'remote communications routine," said Tore Hilde, chief executive officer of Telenor Satellite Services. This new satellite service will help spread the benefits of the 'Internet and IT revolution."

About Telenor:
Headquartered in Oslo, Norway, Telenor is an international provider of high quality telecommunications, data and media communication services. Telenor is one of Norways largest companies with 2001 revenues of approximately NOK 46 billion (approximately U.S. $5 billion) and a workforce of 21,000 located in Norway and abroad. Telenor is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (TEL) and the NASDAQ in New York (TELN).

Telenor Satellite Services is the worlds preferred provider of global satellite communications for customers on land, at sea, and in flight. Telenor offers businesses a global portfolio of innovative and reliable value-added solutions via satellite that includes mobile data, high- speed data, Internet access, e-mail, fax, and voice communications services. Additionally, Telenor is the largest single shareholder (approximately 15 percent) of Inmarsat Ventures plc and operates its own system of earth stations located at Eik in Norway, and at Southbury, Connecticut, and Santa Paula, California in the United States.

For more information contact:

In the U.S.:            
Mr. Tom Surface      
Manager, Media & Public Relations
Phone: +1 301 214 3419   
E-mail: thomas.surface@telenor-usa.com

In Norway:
Ms. Eunike Ditlefsen
Marketing Director
Phone: +4790 92 35 56
E-mail: Eunike.ditlefsen@telenor.com