Uninor mobile services launched in seven circles

Uninor launched its mobiles services in India today. From today, Uninor’s mobile network coverage will be available in UP east and West, Karnataka, Kerala, Orissa, Bihar and Jharkhand.
The company said that it has tied up roaming agreements with operators in areas where it does not have coverage now. Out of the 22 telecom circles, Uninor has launched its mobile telecom operations in 7 circles. Uninor holds licence to launch services in all 22 circles, and has spectrum for the launch in all circles except Delhi.
Uninor has not joined the latest mobile tariff war in India. Mobile operators in India have started offering per-second billing plans, which bills you according to the exact number of seconds on the phone. Till recently, mobile operators in India used to follow the pulse system.

Call charges on Uninor

Uninor is continuing the old practice of pulse system. Uninor announced that local calls on its mobile network will cost 29 paise per minute. STD calls will be charged at 49 paise per minute. As per the Talkmore@29p plan, there will be a call setup charge of 39 paisa per call, while in Callmore@29p, there will be a daily rental of Rs 2. For details about Uninor’s call pricing and tariffs, refer to the Uninor India website.
Uninor is offering mobile services in the GSM spectrum. Uninor SIM cards will be available starting today across its wide network.
Uninor has launched print and TV advertisements with the tagline “Ab Mera Number Hain,” projecting an image of someone whose time has come.
“With launch in seven circles and roaming agreements in place for the rest, we have started our service in India on day one as a pan-Indian national operator. This is a proud achievement of a committed and talented team. While our launch today is indeed a milestone in a longer journey to become a significant operator in India, we are delighted to have made such a strong start,” said Stein-Erik Vellan, Managing Director of Uninor.
Uninor is a joint venture of Norway’s Telenor and India’s Unitech Wireless. Unitech Wireless, which won spectrum and licence for telecom operations later sold a majority stake to Telenor. As of now, Telenor is majority owner of Uninor. In March, Telenor and Unitech Wireless had finalised the financial transaction to launch mobile operations in India. Uninor has been able to launch the mobile services in a short period of time with several infrastructure sharing agreements and vast outsourcing.

Uninor said in a press release that this the single-largest single day launch of telecom operations. The simultaneous rollout of services in the seven circles covers a population of 600 million.
Uninor currently has 1800 employees, and has 11 regional offices. The Uninor mobile SIM cards will be available at 210,000 retail outlets, 1000 exclusive Uninor distributors, and 17 exclusive Uninor-owned shops and 50 exclusive Uninor franchisee shops.
Uninor is hoping to gain a marketshare of 8% in the first 10 years of its operation in India. In the first five years, it expects a loss of Rs 15,500 crore.
More and more foreign telecom companies have set eyes on India, which is a booming market for mobile communication. The leading telecom providers in India are Airtel, Reliance Communications, Tata Indicom, Tata DoCoMo, BSNL, MTNL, Aircel, Vodafone, Loop Mobile, MTS and Idea Cellular.