Tele2 Norway was one of Norway’s mobile challenger operators from 1995 to 2015, offering mobile subscriptions and, for consumer subscribers, a bundled @tele2.no email address. Following an unsuccessful bid in Norway’s December 2013 spectrum auction, Tele2 AB announced in July 2014 that it would sell Tele2 Norway to TeliaSonera. The Norwegian Competition Authority approved the deal on February 5, 2015, and Tele2 exited the Norwegian market that year. Tele2 subscribers were transferred to what became Telia Norge, and the @tele2.no consumer email service was retired as the brand was withdrawn. This guide covers what happened and how to move to Telia Norge, Gmail, or Outlook.
Tele2 Norway email is discontinued: no working settings for @tele2.no
Service shutdown: February 2015 market exit. Tele2 Norway exited the Norwegian market in February 2015 following its sale to TeliaSonera. The Tele2 brand was withdrawn from Norway and consumer subscribers were transferred to TeliaSonera (later Telia Company and Telia Norge). Standalone @tele2.no consumer mail infrastructure was retired and addresses are not recoverable through Telia. No SMTP, IMAP, or POP3 configuration against tele2.no hostnames will connect. Telia Norge (which also absorbed NetCom in March 2016 and Get in 2020) provisions new @telia.no mailboxes for broadband subscribers, but these are new accounts, not a continuation of @tele2.no. The migration options below are the only path forward.
What happened to Tele2 Norway
Tele2 Norway was formed in 1995 as a mobile challenger to Telenor and NetCom, building a subscriber base of approximately 1.2 million customers by 2013 across the Tele2, OneCall, MyCall, and Network Norway brands. It was a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Swedish Tele2 AB group.
In December 2013 Tele2 Norway participated in Norway’s spectrum auction and failed to win the frequencies it needed to remain competitive; new entrant ICE Norway walked away with the largest allocation. Tele2 AB announced a strategic review of its Norwegian business and, on July 7, 2014, announced the sale of Tele2 Norway to TeliaSonera for SEK 5.1 billion. The Norwegian Competition Authority initially raised anti-competition concerns but ultimately approved the deal on February 5, 2015, with remedies including divestment of Network Norway’s infrastructure to ICE.
Tele2 subscribers were transferred to TeliaSonera during 2015; the Tele2 brand was withdrawn from Norway. TeliaSonera (later Telia Company) already operated the NetCom brand in Norway, and eventually unified all its Norwegian consumer services under the Telia Norge name in March 2016. Standalone @tele2.no consumer mail infrastructure was retired as the brand was withdrawn. Users with @tele2.no addresses were expected to migrate during the transition period.
Option 1: Migrate to Telia Norge (official successor)
If your Tele2 subscription was carried through to TeliaSonera and later Telia Norge, your consumer email would have moved with it. However, the @tele2.no address itself was not preserved as a Telia alias; former Tele2 users typically received a new Telia-branded address or were encouraged to move to a provider-independent option.
1. Sign in to Mine sider at telia.no
Use the credentials tied to your subscription. If the account originated at Tele2, Telia carried the underlying subscription over during the 2015 integration but the mailbox may have been closed.
2. Check whether a Telia consumer mailbox was provisioned
Not all former Tele2 subscribers received a Telia-branded email address; consumer email is bundled selectively depending on the subscription tier. Contact Telia Norge support if you need to recover a mailbox that was migrated but is no longer accessible.
Option 2: Migrate to Gmail (independent, recommended)
Because the @tele2.no address was not preserved through the operator transition, most former Tele2 users moved to provider-independent mail. Gmail is the standard destination. Create a Gmail account, and send a change-of-address notification to your contact list including the old @tele2.no so recipients can search and update.
Option 3: Migrate to Outlook.com
Outlook.com works the same as Gmail for the migration workflow. Best fit if you already use OneDrive, Office online, or a Microsoft 365 subscription.
Alternatives at a glance
Common issues after the Tele2 exit
Mail client returns connection refused for tele2.no servers
Standalone Tele2 Norway mail hostnames were retired when the brand was withdrawn from Norway in 2015. There is no active @tele2.no mail service to reconfigure against.
Cannot sign in to Tele2 webmail
The Tele2 Norway webmail interface was retired with the brand withdrawal. Sign in through Telia Norge at telia.no if your subscription was transferred and you provisioned a Telia mailbox.
@tele2.no address stopped receiving mail years ago
Expected. The address was not preserved through the operator transition. Contacts still sending to @tele2.no need to be notified of your new address.
Cannot recover Tele2 Norway account credentials
Tele2 AB no longer operates in Norway. Telia Norge may be able to help with subscriptions that were carried over in 2015, but standalone @tele2.no mailbox recovery is generally no longer available.
Frequently asked questions
When did Tele2 exit Norway?
The sale to TeliaSonera was announced in July 2014 and approved by the Norwegian Competition Authority on February 5, 2015. Tele2 Norway operations were transferred to TeliaSonera during 2015 and the Tele2 brand was withdrawn from the Norwegian market.
What happened to @tele2.no email addresses?
Consumer @tele2.no mail infrastructure was retired as the Tele2 brand was withdrawn. Subscribers were transferred to TeliaSonera but the tele2.no address was not preserved as a Telia alias. Former Tele2 users generally moved to provider-independent options like Gmail or Outlook.
What was Network Norway?
A challenger operator acquired by Tele2 Norway in the 2010s. During the TeliaSonera acquisition of Tele2 Norway, Network Norway’s infrastructure was divested to ICE Norway as a competition remedy.
Does Tele2 still operate anywhere?
Yes, in Sweden and the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania). Tele2 AB has terminated operations in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. In 2024 Tele2 AB itself was acquired by Iliad.
What is Telia Norge?
The Norwegian subsidiary of Telia Company (formerly TeliaSonera), operating the country’s second-largest mobile network. Telia Norge was formed by consolidating the former NetCom (rebranded March 2016) and Tele2 Norway (acquired 2015) subscriber bases under a single Telia brand.
Where to go next
- Telenor.no email settings for POP3, IMAP, and SMTP
- NetCom.no email is now Telia Norge migration guide
- Gmail POP3, IMAP, and SMTP settings
- Outlook.com POP3, IMAP, and SMTP settings
Historical timeline of Tele2 Norway
- March 2016: TeliaSonera consolidates its Norwegian consumer operations under the Telia Norge brand; NetCom brand also retired.
- 2015: Tele2 Norway subscribers transferred to TeliaSonera during the year; Tele2 brand withdrawn from Norway.
- February 5, 2015: Norwegian Competition Authority approves the sale, with remedies including Network Norway infrastructure divestment to ICE.
- July 7, 2014: Tele2 AB announces sale of Tele2 Norway to TeliaSonera for SEK 5.1 billion.
- December 2013: Tele2 Norway fails to win spectrum in Norwegian auction; ICE Norway secures largest allocation. Tele2 AB begins strategic review of Norwegian business.
- 1995: Tele2 Norway formed as challenger mobile operator to Telenor and NetCom.
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About the Author
Alaa · LinkedIn
Email infrastructure specialist with 8+ years of hands-on experience in SMTP, deliverability, and email verification. I’ve configured and troubleshot mail systems across Postfix, Exchange, and cloud relays, managed IP reputation and warmup campaigns, and built verification pipelines processing millions of addresses. My work spans DNS authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC, BIMI), bounce handling, blocklist monitoring, and compliance frameworks including CAN-SPAM and GDPR. I write every article on SMTPedia to give email professionals, developers, and marketers the accurate, RFC-grounded reference they need.
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