Uninor has achieved break-even in the circle of Uttar Pradesh (UP) East. The company?s operations have turned profitable in the circle, with its revenues being higher than the operating costs.
The milestone has been achieved by Uninor ahead of the stated target of break-even in the calendar year 2013.
Uninor serves over 7.2 million customers in the UP East circle and incurs a cost of Re 0.18 per minute per subscriber, the lowest among all operators in the region. The operator?s spectrum usage efficiency is 40 per cent in the circle.
Commenting on achieving break-even, Sigve Brekke, managing director, Uninor and head, Telenor Asia, says, ?What makes this remarkable yet is that we are now profitable while offering highly competitive tariffs and managed to keep a strong market focus while operating in an extremely challenging business and regulatory environment over the past year. I credit this achievement to the choice our customers, employees and business partners are making every day.?
Also, Telenor Group has won 5 MHz spectrum in the circles of UP East, UP West, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra in the recently concluded 2G spectrum auction. This would allow the operator to continue telecom services in the new company for a period of 20 years. Together, these six circles account for over 50 per cent of India?s population and with a real penetration as low as 40 per cent, these circles present immense growth opportunity for Uninor.
Going forward, Telenor Group expects its remaining circles to begin achieving the break-even targets in the next few months.
