The previous quarter witnessed the settlement of Telenor's dispute with Unitech, and the latter's exit from the Uninor Joint Venture. Telenor has now submitted an application to the DoT (Department of Telecom) for participating in the upcoming 2G auction, to retain its existing operations, since the Indian Supreme Court had cancelled its licenses in February. Telenor has said that the restructuring of its operations, which also includes bringing in a new Indian partner, is in progress. Previously, Uninor had re-allocated its resources to the nine most profitable circles including Mumbai, Maharashtra & Goa, UP East, UP West, Bihar and Jharkhand, Kolkata, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat to reduce the cost for the operations and the risk of its India investment. Telenor has reported a Profit after tax of NOK 3.64 billion (Rs 34 billion approx) for the quarter ending September 30, 2012, up from NOK 2.58 billion (Rs 24.05 billion) profit in the same quarter last year. The total revenue stood at NOK 25.25 billion (Rs 236 billion), up from NOK 24.63 billion (Rs 230 billion) in the same quarter last year. Uninor reported a decline of 4.6 million subscribers during the quarter. The operator has 29.1 million subscribers in the Indian market. Uninor holds UAS licence to offer mobile services in the 22 telecom circles in India. It had rolled out in 21 circles and was commercially present in 13 circles until today’s announcement, following which it is scaling down its operations in four circles including Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Orissa. The company attributed the loss in subscriber count to the downsizing.…
