The network is primarily used for internal and interdisciplinary communication by the police, fire departments and health services.

As Nokia Siemens Networks was unable to complete the contract, it was passed on to Motorola Solutions in 2012.

The critical infrastructure of Nødnett was finished and was operational in all districts of mainland Norway by December 1, 2015.

Prior to the introduction of Nødnett, Norway had three separate systems for telecommunications within the police, fire departments and paramedics, all based on analog radio.

Norway is a member of the Schengen Agreement, which requires trans-border communication between law enforcement agencies.

In addition, Global System for Mobile Communication – Railway (GSM-R) was considered, but rejected because of the lack of trans-border functionality and the need for more base stations, and thus higher investment costs, and longer start-up time for calls.

[3] In a parliamentary hearing in 2002 both DNK director Tor Helge Lyngstøl and Minister of Justice, Odd Einar Dørum, stated that the choice of TETRA would provide sufficient data capacity.

In a parliamentary decision in 2004 it was decided to opt for the open European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) as a data transmission standard, which is used by all other police TETRA systems in Europe, but this was later changed by the directorate to the proprietary TETRA Enhanced Data Service (TEDS) owned by Motorola.

[1] Work with the system started in 1995, when the Norwegian Board of Health Supervision took initiative for a new mobile telecommunications platform.

Quality control of the project was concluded in June 2004, and construction was estimated at NOK 3.6 billion.

[5] The public tender was launched in May 2005, and on 22 December 2006 the contract was signed with Nokia Siemens Networks.

Health workers will therefore be taking the network into use in May 2010, after the police and fire departments in Follo and Østfold.

[9] In August 2010, the emergency health communication centers in Østfold and the casualty ward at Fredrikstad Hospital started using the system.

Similar test were carried out by Oslo Fire Department later that year, and they found that the radio system was insufficient for their needs.

Oslo Fire Department concluded that the DNK tests were only successful because of the use of additional directional gateway/repeater-radio equipment.

[1] The costs of operating and maintaining the network are covered by the users, who also purchase their own terminals.

Should the base station fall out or operations occur in areas without coverage, the terminals can communicate directly with each other.

[18] Other shortcomings are that the location of base stations are publicly known, allowing for easy sabotage and increased investment costs because of the choice of the proprietary TEDS instead of the open ETSI system.

[4] The system has two types of receivers: radio terminals, which can either be hand-held or mounted in vehicles, and desktop equipment for control centers.

Compared to the analog network, the digital radio equipment will be smaller and have options for additional equipment such as hands free, and allow special radios for motorcycles, snowmobiles, boats, undercover activities and smoke diving.

The digital transmission reduced background noise and allows monitoring terminal identity to prohibit unauthorized use.

[5] Control room terminals will have new functionality including identification of all users and radio terminal positioning, radio and telephone inquiries made on the same equipment, use of either loudspeakers or head sets, and allowing operators to listen to each other's conversations.

Operators have access to telephone books and speed dials, touch screen operations of voice and data traffic, monitoring of other talk groups, simultaneous calls to several talk groups and access to voice logs.