Telenor the joint venture partner in telecom operator Uninor Wireless, has received approvals from the majority of the board members to sell off its business, while its Indian partner Unitech Ltd is mulling of a legal recourse.
The joint venture, Unitech Wireless has invited proposals from potential bidders by August 6, 2012, its Managing Director Sigve Brekke said in a public notice.
Telenor would participate in the forthcoming 2G auctions through an Indian affiliate company and in case there is just one bidder, it would have the right to fix the bid price at a “fair market value” of Rs 4,190 crore ($753 million), it said.
Telenor which had decided to scale down operations across Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Orissa circles in India as reported earlier, will scrap the joint venture with real estate major Unitech and migrate its business to a new company. The Norwegian company also intends to seek fresh 2G licences and commence operation through the new company.
Simultaneously, it will strengthen its operations in Uttar Pradesh-East, Uttar Pradesh-West, Bihar and Jharkhand, Kolkata, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Mumbai, Maharashtra and Goa, and Gujarat.Telenor holds controls the JV with a 67.25 per cent ownership. Interestingly, Telenor is yet to finalise its joint venture partner.
Unitech’s nominee directors on the company’s board have recorded their dissent to selling off assets through an auction. The Indian company is also planning to take legal action against the proposed auction. The decision to sell off the business is attributed to the ongoing regulatory uncertainties.
Sayan Chattopadhyay August 3, 2012 at 12:05 pm
yes in wb uninor is better than docomo, aircel and idea in coverage and sometimes it is better than bsnl and reliance also. That’s why now according to the TRAI’s recent subscriber base they are at no.4 (voda,airtel,rgsm,uni,bsnl,aircel,doco,idea).
Nayan August 2, 2012 at 6:23 pm
Frnds in west bengal many place are present there tata docomo have no network but uninor have network. When any falss deduction in ur uninor number just call 777(kolkata) tollfree number flow Ivr. After 3day u recever ur full balance (without any complne launche). So i think this system to launch pan india. Tata docomo in kolkata good coverge bt not west bengal. Now tata docomo do many falss deduction after call c.c then u recived half amount of the deduction.
sachin August 2, 2012 at 12:21 pm
why you are complaining about coverage they are the last one to start service in kerala and it will take some time to increase coverage.even after years of starting service coverage of airtel is very weak even now@Proximus
Proximus August 2, 2012 at 10:30 am
n Kerala,its better Uninor to stop service.If a Uninor customer register a complaint to Uninor customer care from the next time onwards that customer will be blocked from calling Uninor Customer Care and also the coverage of Uninor is very pathetic.
abhijith August 1, 2012 at 5:33 pm
@Sathish
in Tamil nadu voice clarity king sure its airtel . .
Sathish August 1, 2012 at 4:16 pm
My view:
In Chennai and RoTN Concern:
Uninor is the pioneered of Free Seconds and Free Minutes pack in India, especially 198 pack. Uninor means “voice clarity”, I have never seen such kind of ‘crystal clear voice clarity’ even in airtel. Unfortunately it had JV with Indian fraudulent company ‘Unitech’.
Uninor and Idea is almost same in terms of customer base in Chennai and RoTN.
In KA, KL, TN, Orissa there is no more Uninor!