The Telenor Group posted an operating loss of 3,100 million Norwegian Krone (NOK), approximately Rs 2,530 crore for its Indian operations during its first quarter results, and hinted on suspending operations in India if the upcoming spectrum auctions turns out to be costlier. According to a PTI report, Telenor global CEO Sigve Brekke said that the company’s long terms presence in India is subjected to its ability to secure additional spectrum (from upcoming auctions). He also added that Telenor is not able to compete with current spectrum portfolio it holds in India. Brekke further said that the company is looking at ‘potential trading options’ in order to maintain a sustainable business model. However, he said that the company is looking to acquire new spectrum at “a price that we can justify”. "We are in India to make money, if we don't see return then we need to look at other alternatives," Telenor CFO Morten Karlsen Sorby added. MediaNama has written to Telenor regarding its stance on TRAI’s costly reserve prices, and the government’s move to offer liberalized spectrum, and whether it would look to collaborate with other telcos in spectrum sharing/trading, or roaming deals. We will update the story once we get a reply. Alternate payment structure for telcos: This month, TRAI recommended an alternate payment structure for telcos to ease debt. For the upcoming auctions, telcos could first pay 10% of the bid amount; the balance 90% could be paid over 18 years with 18 equal annual installments, along…
Please subscribe to MediaNama. Don't share prints and PDFs.
You May Also Like
News
Google has released a Google Travel Trends Report which states that branded budget hotel search queries grew 179% year over year (YOY) in India, in...
Advert
135 job openings in over 60 companies are listed at our free Digital and Mobile Job Board: If you’re looking for a job, or...
News
By Aroon Deep and Aditya Chunduru You’re reading it here first: Twitter has complied with government requests to censor 52 tweets that mostly criticised...
News
Rajesh Kumar* doesn’t have many enemies in life. But, Uber, for which he drives a cab everyday, is starting to look like one, he...