Iceland Telecoms' tariffs and prices are now among the lowest in the western world in all categories and it's cheaper to use the Internet in Iceland off-peak than anywhere is other than Finland and Denmark. Competitors have already taken over the domestic copper loop. Iceland Telecom president and CEO Thorarinn Thorarinsson sees this as a healthy development: "It is more desirable that there be a level playing field. I am very much in favor of privatization." The latest technology has given people many ways to communicate quickly and efficiently for all kind of telecoms traffic.39 Over the last decade, Iceland Telecom has invested in 3,000km of fiber optics to provide a 2.5-gigabyte capacity circuit around the island and mobile telephony (GSM) is now available to 96% of the population.

Unlike many European countries, Iceland is receptive to all companies wanting licenses or license-based agreements. It already boosts 17 operators; one per 17,500 people.2 According to the Post and Telecom Administration, the three major telecom players in Iceland are Iceland Telecom, TAL, and Islandssimi, who have been successfully expanding there networks in services. However, despite efforts towards liberalization the telecommunications market in Iceland is still heavily dominated by Iceland Telecom, which is expected because of the vast infrastructure it already has in place.

The process of telecommunications deregulation has been bogged down by concerns about whether remote towns and communities will continue to receive the same quality of service when the national Iceland Telecom is privatized in March of 2001. Such matters are highly sensitive at a time when more than half the population lives in the Reykjavik area, and there has been a steady population drift away from the small villages towards the capital in the south west corner
of the country.