Norway experience

[steven_cooreman]

After checking this forum, I concluded that most of the information was quite out-of-date regarding Norwegian prepaid cards, so I will write my experience here.

I am on a two-week trip in Norway, moving from place to place. Seeing that contact with family and friends is really important for me, and calling would become really expensive, I figured that getting a prepaid card for internet would be my best option. On my first stop (Hemsedal), I asked at the tourist office ("turistkontor") where I could buy such a card, and they showed me the way to the local electronics shop ("Expert" brand). The people there were very friendly, and provided me with a NetCom Kontant SIM.

Now, most of the posts here say that it is impossible or very slow to get such a card registered as a foreign resident (registering is mandatory for all SIM cards in Norway). In my case, however, the store employee called NetCom (I presume), gave the details of my Belgian ID card, and told me that my card would be fully functional in half an hour!

Half an hour later I was indeed having an internet connection with good coverage (3G!). Don't forget to send an SMS with the codeword "KONTANT" to 1995 first, because it is only the new formula that has the flat-rate of NOK 20 per day data. As of yet (150Mb), I have not yet experienced any throttling.

You might ask, "why not Telenor?". Well, NetCom had a few pages in English, which provided me with some confidence that they are open to international customers, and, on top, you can reload your card online with a non-Norwegian credit card.

I hope this story can help anyone looking into prepaid data services in Norway.

[Effendi]

Thanks for your experience!