Elektrisk Bureau or EB was a Norwegian manufacturer of

telecommunication Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

equipment. It was founded in 1882 and lasted until 1993 when it became part of

Asea Brown Boveri ABB Group is a Swedish-Swiss multinational electrical engineering corporation. Incorporated in Switzerland as ABB Ltd., and headquartered in Zurich, it is dual-listed on the Nasdaq Nordic exchange in Stockholm, Sweden, and the SIX Swiss Excha ...

(ABB). The company was located at

Billingstad Billingstad is a village in Asker municipality, Akershus county, Norway. It is close to the border of Bærum and Vestmarka (Oslomarka), Vestmarka and is 18 km west of Oslo. It has 2,349 residents (2006). The area is both residential and com ...

Asker Asker (), also called Asker proper (''Askerbygda'' or ''gamle Asker'' in Norwegian), is a district and former Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Akershus, Norway, located approximately 20km southwest of Oslo. From 2020 it is part of the ...

History

In 1882 Carl Söderberg founded EB. The background was that Söderberg, who had started a telephone union in Christiania, felt that

Bell System The Bell System was a system of telecommunication companies, led by the Bell Telephone Company and later by the AT&T Corporation, American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), that dominated the telephone services industry in North America fo ...

had been charging too high prices. In 1885 the company was made limited and a year later

Akers Mekaniske Verksted Akers mekaniske Verksted (often abbreviated ''Akers mek. Verksted'' or ''Akers Mek.'') was a workshop, later a shipyard which was established in Fossveien by the Aker River in Oslo in 1841. In 1854 the company moved to Holmen on the west side of ...

became the largest owner. EB became the largest domestic producer of telephone systems as well as export. But during the 1920s when the automatic centrals were introduced, EB lost its leading position. Instead focus was moved to the consumer market, and in 1928 L. M. Ericsson became the main owner of EB, granting a great deal of patents that EB could utilize. EB also had close connections with Televerket, whom EB was the largest producer of telecommunication equipment for. This was especially true in the late 1960s to abolish waiting lists for telephone lines. The Swedish

ASEA ''Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget'' ( English translation: General Swedish Electrical Limited Company; Swedish abbreviation: ASEA) was a Swedish industrial company. History ASEA was founded in 1883 by Ludvig Fredholm in Västerås ...

eventually bought 67% of EB, and in 1988 the company became part of the new Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) group, through the brand EB was used until 1993, when ABB bought the rest of EB. {{Authority control Manufacturing companies established in 1882 Manufacturing companies based in Oslo ABB