The Norwegian Communications Authority (Nkom) has received reports of both unidentified drones and suspicious persons around mobile phone towers and electronic communication facilities.
– Observations of the drones were made in Trondelag and southern Norway, Supervisory Division Commander Svein Scheie at Nkom tells TV 2.
He doesn’t have an exact figure for the number of drones that have been spotted, but it should be less than ten drones.
– The messages we received are from contractors who worked on mobile phone towers and noticed drones nearby.
Because of the observations, they asked mobile and broadband companies to be more vigilant for suspicious activity near their facilities.
– We want to have a minimum notification threshold, because soon you will receive legitimate notifications too. It is not illegal to fly drones. So it’s not the case that every alert is illegal drones.
There are no signs of a possible attack
Talking Schie NRK They saw no signs of a potential attack or that the drones could hit infrastructure by taking it out of service.
There will also be no major consequences if it is taken out of the process, but it may have a very local significance.
Nkom’s press contact, Ellen Høstmark Bustø, confirmed to TV 2 that they are not concerned about the notes.
– But since the conflict in Ukraine, our focus on security and preparedness has increased, and we’ve asked the industry to focus on that, says Busto
At the same time, she assures that she knows nothing about the purpose of using the observed drones.
– We don’t know if they were there to take photos of the installation or if they were there to take landscape photos. Drones have become relatively common. Not all drone activity is suspicious, she says.
PST is responsible
– But routinely we report to the PST. They have to do the assessments and they are responsible for assessing the risks, and we don’t, Busto says.
The Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) has taken over the responsibility of investigating the use of drones in all accidents involving drones in this country.
PST has not yet responded to a TV 2 inquiry.
Nkom confirmed to TV 2 that they have no indication that the drone notes have any connection to Telenor’s problems on Thursday
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