Uninor, the telecom subsidiary of Telenor in India, will announce its new Internet strategy on Monday.
The mobile service provider is organizing a press conference on Monday in Delhi to announce a major change in its internet strategy.
The company will share specific details at the press conference that will be addressed by Morten Karlsen Sorby, nominated CEO, Uninor and Amaresh Kumar, head of Uninor’s internet project.
During the recently concluded spectrum auction, the Telenor subsidiary did not invest substantially to compete with bigger rivals in India.
On 13 February, Uninor said it acquired additional spectrum in the 1800 MHz band in four of its six existing circles – UP East, UP West, Bihar and Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh – and in the new circle of Assam at an investment of INR 8,447 million.
The additional spectrum will enable Uninor to enhance its voice and data capacity by approximately 20 to 25 percent in the four existing circles of UP East, UP West, Bihar and Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh.
On the other hand, rivals of Uninor including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio Infocomm, Idea Cellular, Vodafone, etc. said they would launch 4G LTE services on FD-LTE technology using the 1800 MHz spectrum acquired during the February 2013 spectrum auction.
There were media reports that suggested that Telenor is looking for acquiring or merging with another Indian telecom operator to expand its presence. Some media reported that Tata Teleservices, Aircel, Vodafone, MTS India, etc. are keen for an association with Uninor.
Also read: Uninor announced network expansion plans
Earlier, Uninor announced it will deploy 5,000 additional network sites in its six circles of UP West, UP East, Bihar (including Jharkhand), Maharashtra and Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. To be completed within the next 5 months, the expansion will enable Uninor to have 24,000 network sites deployed across its six circles with an ability to cover 50 million additional population in these regions.
During the fourth quarter of 2013, Uninor has improved its ARPU by 17 percent to INR 106 due to improved quality of the customer base. The company’s revenues from the six circles where it offers services have improved 36 percent to INR 8.5 billion. Uninor has reduced churn quarter on quarter to 4.6 percent.
Uninor has reported a quarter on quarter growth of 13.2 percent in revenue at a time when the growth of the larger operators is between 0 to 5 percent, it said.
Uninor serves over 32.7 million subscribers in the six circles of UP West, UP East, Bihar (including Jharkhand), Maharashtra and Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. The company offers its connections and recharges through 345,000 points of sale and 1828 distributors.
