JOIN USUnlike in the past when the focus was to acquire subscribers at any cost, mobile operators are now trying to get more revenue and more minutes of usage per subscriber. Tariffs are going up as leading operators have raised rates.
In this scenario, Uninor Wireless, a joint venture between Telenor and Unitech, a relatively a small player in the industry, is focusing on the mass market with ‘affordable pricing’ as the strategy.
“Our positioning is strategic. Since 80 per cent of the mobile calls in India are within the same circle , we offer the lowest rates here,” said Unitec Wireless India Managing Director, Sigve Brekke. He claimed that in the 13 telecom cricles where the company is present since it launched its services in June 2010, Uninor has acquired 22.38 million subscribers till August and it ranks fourth in new customer acquisitions.
One example of Uninor’s aggressive pricing strategy is its on net (calls within the same circle) cal plan where the call charges are only 2 paisa per minute, pulse rate is per second, monthly fixed charge is Rs 20 and additional fee is Rs 66 for 12 months.
Uninor also offers lower priced during off-peak time. Brekke said that company is targeting a turnover of Rs 2,500 crore in 2011 as its revenue is growing at 30 per cent every month. Uninor plans to breakeven in the year 2013 by keeping its cost lean. It does not own any passive infrastructure, Brekke said.
In the quarter ended June 2011 Uninor made operating loss of Rs 1026 crore (NOK 1206 m) on a revenue of Rs 594 crore (NOK 698 m). Telenor so far has invested Rs 6,100 crore in Uninor and has also invested another Rs 5,000 crore with borrowed funds. To expand its network to 10 more circles, the company now plans to raise Rs 8,000 crore by way of rights issue of shares to be subscribed by two partners.
But if Unitech, whose officials are embroiled in a 2G controversy and is opposed to rights issue, decides not to subscribe to the rights issue, Telenor will look for an alternate Indian partner. Though Brekke says that Telenor has not spoken to any Indian company for this purpose, the process for the rights issue will start soon.