Norwegian telecom operator Telenor threatened to exit India if the company fails to obtain spectrum at reasonable rates.
“Long term presence in India is dependent on our ability to secure additional spectrum. We are not able to compete with current spectrum portfolio we have in growing data market,” Telenor’s CEO Sigve Brekke said.
“We are in India to make money, if we don’t see return then we need to look at other alternatives,” Telenor’s CFO Morten Karlsen Sorby said.
In February, Brekke said that Telenor India was planning to launch LTE services in five to eight cities in the coming months. At that time, the executive also said the telco needed to obtain more spectrum in order to launch 4G across India.
At the end of March, Telenor had over 42 million mobile subscribers in India. The European telecoms group is seeking a valuation of $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion for its Indian operation, according to previous reports.
Bharti Airtel ends March with more than 251 million mobile subs in India
Also out of India, Bharti Airtel said it served 251.2 million mobile phone subscribers on the subcontinent at the end of the fourth fiscal quarter ended March 31, climbing 3.3% compared to the same time last year.
Taking into account the operator’s operations in India, South Asia and Africa, the telco’s total mobile customer base hit 342 million subscribers at end of the period, an increase of 1.8% vs. the same quarter in 2015.
Bharti Airtel’s net profit for the quarter totaled 12.9 billion rupees ($ 194.2 million), up 2.8% year-on-year. The carrier reported total revenue of 249.6 billion rupees, climbing 8.4% year-on-year. Revenue from operations in India totaled 183.3 billion rupees in the period, up 11.7% year-on-year.
“With the proposed spectrum acquisitions from Videocon & Aircel, we will be the only pan-India 2G/3G/4G operator and best placed in the Industry to strengthen our leadership position,” said Bharti Airtel’s CEO for India and South Asia, Gopal Vittal.
Bharti Airtel initially launched India’s first LTE network in Kolkata in April 2012, through spectrum in the 2300 MHz band. In the 3G segment, Bharti Airtel ended March with over 118,000 sites across India.
Mobile data traffic carried on Bharti Airtel’s networks during the quarter jumped to 178.1 billion megabytes, up 75.6% from the year-ago quarter.
Bharti Airtel aims to invest 600 billion rupees within the next three years to in a network transformation program called Project Leap. Through this investment, the telco aims to expand 3G and 4G coverage.
The operator has operations in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and 17 countries in Africa.
