DESI Index (Digital Economy and Society Index) measures Norway in terms of digital competences, the spread of broadband and mobile networks, the use of digital services in business and society, and the use of public digital services. In 2020, Norway took third place after Finland and Sweden.

 The government has set ambitious targets in both areas, which will likely pay off in future measurements

- Although Norway dropped two places last year, performs well above average in all major categories. At the same time, the index shows that we must continue to work. We must step up our efforts to share public data and access to high-speed broadband. The government has set ambitious goals in both areas, which will likely pay off in future measurements, says Minister of Local Government and County Bjørn Bjørn Arild Gram.

Norway is particularly good at public digital services. This is especially true for the 'eGovernment users' and 'digital business services' indicators, while Norway is below the EU average in terms of open data.

- This is partly due to the fact that the data collected for this indicator does not reflect the development that took place in 2020. Norway is one of the best at using public digital services, we are systematically and purposefully working to make us even better. But the same is done by other European countries - especially our Nordic neighbors. That's why we have to keep up, says Gram.

Norway is also doing well in digital literacy and the use of digital services in business and society. In the subcategory digital competences, Norway performs particularly well in terms of the percentage of people with basic digital competences and the percentage of people with basic software competences.

Regarding the subcategory of digital use in business and society, Norway performs particularly well in terms of the proportion of small and medium-sized enterprises using basic digital services. These are important prerequisites for reaping the benefits of further digitization.

5G development in Norway is now very fast

Norway ranks well above the EU average for mobile and broadband deployment, but has fallen slightly since 2020. Then Norway was at the forefront in Europe in this category, along with Denmark.

- 5G development in Norway is now very fast. We know Norwegian mobile gamers have extensive 5G development plans. The district package for the development of mobile broadband is most likely to advance the later measurements, says Gram.

The European Commission is developing the DESI index. This year, several changes were made to the index indicators. The results for 2020 and 2021 are therefore not fully comparable.

In the case of some indicators, there has also been a significant development on the Norwegian side, following the collection of data by the European Commission. This applies, inter alia, to indicators for open data and 5G coverage, respectively, where we both expect a much better result in this year's data, but which will not be reflected in DESI until 2022.

Source: regjeringen

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