PowerTech Information Systems AS is an

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

-based

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *Norwegian language, including the two ...

Internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, no ...

founded in 1993.

History

PowerTech was founded in fall 1993, in tiny quarters in Storgata, Oslo, by teenagers Øystein Homelien, Lars Nøring, Harald Paulsen, and Henry Dramstad. They had dropped out of school and were all still minors; Nøring's father became chairman of the company for legal reasons.Gunhild M. Haugnes
"Nerder med ni liv: Tidlig på 90-tallet droppet fire unge tenåringer skolen for å skape sitt eget IT-eventyr. Og etter ti vellykkede år i tidenes mest turbulente bransje peker pilene fortsatt i været for de unge gründerne i Powertech,"
''

Aftenposten (; ; stylized as in the masthead) is Norway's largest printed newspaper by circulation as well as Norway's newspaper of record. It is based in Oslo. It sold 211,769 daily copies in 2015 (172,029 printed copies according to University of Bergen ...

'' January 26, 2003 In an interview with ''

'' in 1994, they said "their biggest dream was to give the Internet to the people." (They were also interviewed that year by

Alf Tande-Petersen Alf Tande-Petersen, nicknamed Tande-P (born 9 October 1950), is a Norwegian television personality, journalist, writer and businessperson. In his early career he wrote for newspapers and was a radio presenter, and he has released books in several ge ...

in the program "Opp Med Norge" on

NRK The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (), commonly known by its initialism NRK, is a Norwegian state-run, government-influenced radio and television public broadcasting company. The NRK broadcasts three national TV channels and thirteen nat ...

.Magnus A. Koren and Sverre Rørvik Nilsen
"Satset på internett i 1994: Oslo-selskapet Powertech, som tilbyr bredbåndstilgang og hosting-tjenester, omsatte for 81 millioner i 2009. De da mindreårige gründerne ble intervjuet av Tande P allerede i 1994,"

E24 Næringsliv ''E24'', formerly ''E24 Næringsliv'' and ''N24'', is a Norwegian, online business newspaper originally launched on 18 April 2006, merged with ''Dine Penger'' in 2013, and rebranded as ''E24'' in 2019. History During the first three years of op ...

, January 12, 2010 ) They initially provided internet service only to individuals, but later changed their focus to small- to mid-sized companies; they now primarily provide commercial broadband and hosting services, mainly to companies in Oslo and

Akershus Akershus () is a county in Norway, with Oslo as its administrative centre, though Oslo is not located within Akershus. Akershus has been a region in Eastern Norway with Oslo as its main city since the Middle Ages, and is named after the Akers ...

. Initially, the founders drew only minimal salaries from the company, and in 1996/97, the company took out a large loan to replace aging equipment. In 2003, three of the founders were still active with the company, which had annual revenues of approximately 30 million kroner ($5,173,047 USD, per 2012 currency exchange rates), had received outside investment of some four million kroner, and was still 50% owned by the four founders and their families. In 2008, including two subsidiaries, the company had approximately 30 employees;Marius Jørgenrud
"Powertech er femten år: En av landets aller første nettleverandører fyller rundt tall"

Digi.no ''Digi.no'' is a Norwegian online newspaper covering news within information technology and telecommunications. It is published in Oslo by Teknisk Ukeblad Media. The publication has eight journalists. The editor in chief is Ida Oftebro. When Di ...

, November 21, 2008 in 2009, revenues were approximately 81 million kroner ($13,794,792 USD, per 2012 currency exchange rates). PowerTech's original rival was

Oslonett Oslonett was an Internet service provider based in Oslo, Norway, and the first ISP to serve Norway. It was established 12 of December 1991, founded by a group of 18 University of Oslo alumni (co founders include journalist and lector Gisle Hannemy ...

, which was started by IT professionals from the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Europe, oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick Univ ...

and was later acquired by

Telenor Telenor ASA ( or ) is a Norwegian majority state-owned multinational telecommunications company headquartered at Fornebu in Bærum, close to Oslo. It is one of the world's largest mobile telecommunications companies with operations worldwi ...

. Numerous other ISPs appeared in Norway in 1996/97, most of which no longer exist. The company was part owner with ''

Dagbladet () is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally it was considered the main liberal newspaper of Norway, with a ...

'' of the internet portal Start.no, which is now the

Start Network Start Network AS is a private company that owns and runs the internet service provider Start.no in Norway. In addition to the premium portal site at start.no the company offers several levels of service, including free Internet access over dialup ...

;

Scandinavia Online Scandinavia is a subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also refer to the Scand ...

bought PowerTech's share in 2008. Start Bredbånd (broadband) and Whitebird New Media, former subsidiaries, were absorbed into PowerTech on December 1, 2009. The company was sold to Broadnet in February 2016.

References

External links

* {{official website, http://www.powertech.no/ Internet service providers of Norway 1993 establishments in Norway Privately held companies of Norway