The expansion announcement comes on the back of Uninor achieving breakeven by proving the sustainability of its operating model.
"With this expansion Uninor will now extend its SabseSasta services to millions of new subscribers in its six circles even as we strengthen our network in the areas we already cover,” said Morten KarlsenSorby, nominated CEO of Uninor. “Achieving profitability in record time shows that Uninor can continue to keep its most affordable tariffs position in the market while offering a profitable business proposition to its distributors and retailers and expanding its network coverage. This will continue to be our strategy in 2014," he added.
The company has also reported an improvement in all its major business metrics for the fourth quarter of 2013, the results of which were announced by Telenor Group today.
During the quarter, Uninor has improved its ARPU by 17% to reach INR 106 as a result of improved quality of the customer base. The company's revenues from the six circles where it offers services have improved by 36% to reach INR 8.5 billion. Additionally, Uninor has also continued to reduce churn quarter on quarter to reach 4.6% for the current period.
Uninor has reported a sequential quarter on quarter growth of 13.2% in revenue at a time when the growth of the larger operators is between 0 to 5%. The Revenue Market Share for Q3 has increased by 50 bps (source: TRAI). It is expected that Uninor gains further revenue market share in Q4 in 2013.
Uninor today serves over 32.7 million subscribers (as reported in India) in the six circles of UP West, UP East, Bihar (including Jharkhand), Maharashtra and Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. The company offers its connections and recharges through 345,000 points of sale and 1828 distributors.
About Uninor: Uninor is majority owned subsidiary of Telenor Group – one of the major mobile operators with headquarters in Oslo, Norway. Uninor’s pre-paid GSM services are commercially available in the six circles of UP (West), UP (East), Bihar (including Jharkhand), Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Together, these circles account for more than 50% of India’s population giving Uninor the ability to serve every second person in India.
Uninor's three-pillar strategy of being the best in basic services, mass market distribution and low cost operations has helped the company achieve EBIDTA and OCF breakeven in all the 6 operational circles within 4 years of launching services. By focusing on affordable tariffs, Uninor empowers its 32 million subscribers to enjoy the benefits of mobile telephony through its simple proposition of – ‘Sabsesasta’ (lowest) tariffs for all basic services. For more information, please visit www.uninor.in |www.twitter.com/uninornews
About Telenor: Telenor Group is an international provider of tele, data and media communication services. Telenor Group has mobile operations in 12 markets in the Nordic region, Central and Eastern Europe and in Asia, as well as a voting stake of 42.95 per cent (economic stake 33 per cent) in VimpelCom Ltd., operating in 17 markets. Headquartered in Norway, Telenor Group is one of the world’s major mobile operators with 161 million mobile subscriptions in its consolidated operations per Q3 2013, revenues in 2012 of NOK 102 billion, and a workforce of nearly 34,000.
