Digital communication infrastructures and the principle of universality : Challenges for Nordic media welfare state jurisdictions

This chapter examines to what extent the digital communication infrastructure of Norway is subject to regulation of the Internet’s physical infrastructures. To assess how communicative power is distributed, we map the ownership of access networks and backbone infrastructures to ascertain how the Norwegian infrastructure regulation is legally geared to protect universalist principles in media welfare states. Included in the mapping are backbone networks (fibre cables, Internet exchange points, content delivery networks, and data centres) and access networks (broadband wire and electromagnetic radio frequencies). Our findings reveal that backbone infrastructures are essentially unregulated and increasingly controlled by foreign companies and energy companies. This implies an uneven jurisdictional reach of Norwegian legislators, leaving an open gate for large multinational companies to establish infrastructures that generate, store, and distribute data. The result is a potential loss of data sovereignty and communicative power by Norwegian citizens.