Norway’s trade minister Trond Giske was quoted telling reporters in New Delhi that if Telenor was forced to exit India following the cancellation of Uninor’s 2G licences, there would be “political implications”.
He reportedly added that…
Norway’s trade minister Trond Giske was quoted telling reporters in New Delhi that if Telenor was forced to exit India following the cancellation of Uninor’s 2G licences, there would be “political implications”.
He reportedly added that India would lose vital foreign investment and therefore urged the Indian government to find a solution to this impasse.
The Norwegian government owns a 54% stake in Telenor, which in turn controls 67.25% of Indian mobile joint venture Uninor.
Telenor has written down its Indian assets worth NKr 8.1bn (US$1.4bn) and the company has threatened, on several occasions, to leave the Indian market if no solution can be found with regards to the cancellation of its 2G licences.
Telenor has also criticised the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai)’s proposals on reserve prices for the upcoming 2G auction. It said that if those recommendations are accepted by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), “it will be almost impossible to participate in the auction for Telenor.”
In late April, Trai recommended that the reserve price for 5MHz of 700MHz band should be set at Rs72.44bn (US$1.37bn), at Rs36.22bn (US$685m) for 5MHz of 800/900MHz band, and at Rs18.11bn (US$343m) for 5MHz of 1800Mhz band.
These prices are much higher than the amount spent by carriers in 2008 to acquire the spectrum and the number of slots available is reportedly more limited.
But on 12 May, in a response to the DoT seeking clarification on the proposals, Trai reiterated most of its recommendations.
It is not yet known when the government will decide on the final rules but the auction is scheduled to take place before 31 August 2012.
