Posten Bring, formerly Posten Norge (), is the name of the Norwegian

postal service The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal sy ...

. The company, owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications, had a

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek and ) is a market in which one person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service. A monopoly is characterized by a lack of economic Competition (economics), competition to produce ...

until 2016 on the distribution of letters weighing less than throughout the country. There are 6 post offices in Norway, in addition to approximately 1400 sales outlets.

History

Posten was founded in January 1647 as Postvesenet () by general postmaster Henrik Morian. It was established as a private company, and King

Christian IV Christian IV (12 April 1577 – 28 February 1648) was King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Holstein and Schleswig from 1588 until his death in 1648. His reign of 59 years and 330 days is the longest in Scandinavian history. A member of the H ...

gave his blessing to its founding. Postvesenet was privately run until 1719 when the state took over. From that point on, the national postal service was a

state monopoly In economics, a government monopoly or public monopoly is a form of coercive monopoly in which a government agency or government corporation is the sole provider of a particular good or service and competition is prohibited by law. It is a monopoly ...

. Local city postal services remained private, but in 1888, a new postal law was introduced that expanded the monopoly to the entire country. In 1933, Postvesenet was renamed Postverket. In 1996, Posten Norge BA was established as a state-owned company where the Norwegian state had

limited liability Limited liability is a legal status in which a person's financial Legal liability, liability is limited to a fixed sum, most commonly the value of a person's investment in a corporation, company, or joint venture. If a company that provides limi ...

. In 2002, Posten changed its corporate structure to that of a stock company to prepare the company for the expected

deregulation Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a ...

of the Norwegian postal market. Posten Bring AS is still fully owned by the Norwegian state, and the liberalization process has been postponed until 2011 by the government. The group is divided into five divisions: Post, E-commerce and Logistics, International Logistics, Nordic Network, and Next, each focused on specific customer and market needs.

References

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Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

Government-owned companies of Norway Postal system of Norway Government agencies established in 1647 Philately of Norway 1647 establishments in Norway Ministry of Transport (Norway)

History

See also

References