Uninor has achieved break-even in the circles of Uttar Pradesh (UP) West as well as Bihar and Jharkhand. With the service providers? operations turning profitable in these two circles, Uninor has achieved break-even in five out of the six circles where it offers telecom services.
Earlier, Uninor had achieved break-even in the circles of UP East, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. It is looking forward to achieve the milestone of turning profitable in the Maharashtra (and Goa) circle within 2013.
Currently, Uninor serves 5.2 million subscribers in the UP West circle. The operator has over 2,890 telecom tower sites and a retail footprint of about 56,285 points of sale in the circle. In Bihar and Jharkand, Uninor has a subscriber base of 4.3 million. The operator has a network of 2,442 telecom tower sites coupled with a retail footprint of 50,000 points of sale in the Bihar circle.
The company has attributed its success in the two circles to its positioning as a brand which offers ?sabse sasta? tariffs. The operator claims that its tariffs are 60 per cent lower than its competitors. Further, Uninor claims to have lower costs per minute (up to 40 per cent lower as compared to other players), which has helped it achieve break-even in the two circles.
Commenting on break-even achieved in the two circles, Yogesh Malik, chief executive officer, Uninor, says, ?Uninor?s success busts the myth that efficiency needs scale and profitability needs high-end services with high tariffs. We have also proved that our operating model is successful in diverse markets ? equally in circles like Gujarat and the Andhra Pradesh which are characterised by lower energy costs and higher average revenue per user (ARPU) and in UP and Bihar circles with higher costs and lower ARPUs.?
