The Indian telecom sector is likely to witness consolidation in two years, by which time mobile operators will have expanded their services to cover 80 per cent of the domestic market, Norwegian telco Telenor said today.
"The consolidation could happen in some years' time, maybe in the next two years, when (mobile) penetration will reach 70 to 80 per cent," Telenor President & CEO Jon Fredrik Baksaas said here.
Telenor hold a 67.25 per cent stake in telecom services provider Uninor, while the remaining equity is held by Unitech.
Baksaas further said the company added 2.5 million new subscribers during October.
"In the month of October, we have been able to connect 2.5 million new subscribers, the figures of which will be will released next week by telecom regulator TRAI. With these figures, we have, after 10 months of operations now, 13.5 million subscribers as of end-October, according to the regulator's statistics," Baksaas added.
Replying to a question on whether the government will release any spectrum in Delhi, he said, "There are no firm indications for that, but the most recent comment in that respect is that there might be some spectrum ready for release not very far away and we certainly hope that it could be the case."
Presently, Uninor offers services in 13 telecom circles, namely UP West (including Uttaranchal), UP East, Bihar (including Jharkhand), Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Mumbai, West Bengal, Kolkata and Gujarat.
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With regard to the ongoing investigation into whether Uninor has a valid licence for offering telecom services in the country, Baksaas said the probe relates to a period before Telenor made its entry into the country as a joint venture partner with Unitech. "In that respect, the company will cooperate with whatever kind of request the government investigator might have on this," he said.
The Telenor Group has a presence in 14 countries, with 174 million mobile subscriptions worldwide as of Q4, 2009. It employs over 40,000 employees across the globe.
On whether shareholders have raised concerns over mounting losses on the Uninor venture, Baksaas said, "Telenor's decision to enter into the emerging market came at the point of time where a financial crisis emerged at the world scene. But now, with the consistent growth that the Indian economy has shown, they do have level of curiosity into what we are doing in India for the time being, which is a new change in their thinking."