Indian telecom service provider Uninor, a subsidiary of Telenor, today said reserve price set by TRAI for 900 MHz and 1800 MHz spectrum bands is extremely high.
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Morten K Sorby, CEO of Uninor, addressing a media briefing in Delhi today, said that the government should look at supporting Indians to access mobile Internet by keeping the price of spectrum low from the current level. “Government should also release more spectrum to telecom operators in India,” Sorby added.
The company is unlikely to participate in the upcoming spectrum auction. Uninor is currently betting on the existing circles – six at present and Assam to be launched – to grow the business. The telecom operator has 40.1 million mobile subscribers and has the strong potential to engage with more than half of Indian population.
On Wednesday, Indian telecom regulator TRAI suggested about 10 percent higher reserve price for auction of airwaves in the 1800 MHz band based on the discovered price at the February auction. This price increase can be a major block for telecom operators.
TRAI said the base price for 1800 MHz spectrum will be Rs 2,138 crore per MHz, while it would be Rs 3,004 crore per MHz for 900 MHz band in 18 telecom circles.
In addition to announcing the spectrum reserve price, TRAI announced several significant conditions to be executed before the spectrum auction.
Uninor, which is aiming to generate 50 percent of its revenues from mobile Internet by 2017, is not looking at an active 4G roll out though it has limited spectrum to do so on FD-LTE technology. Last week, Vodafone, one of the rivals of Uninor, said it would conduct 4G trials next year.
Sigve Brekke, EVP and head of the Telenor Asia, said that the eco-system is yet to take shape and there is limited availability of 4G compatible handsets for Indian market. Hence, 4G does not make sense for Telenor in India and several other global markets.
Comparing with Telenor’s global operations, Uninor has a small presence in India. It has just 40 million mobile subscribers in 6 telecom circles. Though Uninor is saying that it’s keen to acquire other telecoms in India, it has not yet made any progress in this direction.
Telenor Group, which has with 176 million mobile subscriptions in its consolidated operations per Q2 2014, has mobile operations in 13 markets in the Nordic region, Central and Eastern Europe and in Asia, as well as 33 percent stake in VimpelCom, operating in 17 markets.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
