Uninor

Uninor is a mobile telephony and network operator in India.[1] The company holds a pan-India UAS licence[2] to offer telecommunications services in each of India’s 22 circles. It has also received spectrum to roll out these services in 21 of the 22 telecom circles. From November 2009, Uninor will be owned 67.25% by Norwegian telecom giant Telenor, and 32.75% by India's Unitech Group. Uninor has started mobile services in India at the end of 2009, focusing on the GSM technology.


History

The company Unitech Wireless was until 2009 a subsidiary of Unitech Group, holding a wireless services licence for all 22 Indian telecom circles since 2008. In early 2009, Unitech Group and Telenor agreed on a majority take-over by Telenor of Unitech's wireless business, including Unitech Wireless' national-wide mobile licence. By March, May and November, Telenor acquired a 33%, 49% and 60% stake in Unitech Wireless, respectively. In September, the mobile operation changed it's name to Uninor. On October 19 the Indian Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA) announced that it has approved Telenor's acquisition of up to 74% in Unitech Wireless, and the shareholder's agreement sets a 67.25% Telenor ownership in Uninor.[3]
Uninor's strategy

Uninor is India's eighth nation-wide mobile operator, in a competitive landscape of 13 nation-wide or regional mobile operators. The company is targeting an 8 % pan-Indian market share, and the opening of one million retail points and breaking even on EBITDA within three years.[4] It will provide mobile communication and Value Added Services.

In order to reduce time-to-market, Uninor will outsource infrastructure and back-end services to partner organizations with established core competencies.[5] The operational model is low-cost with a gradual network-build up, infrastructure sharing, GSM equipment at competitive cost, full-scale IT-outsourcing and a long term cost and capex efficiency.

Uninor will organise with headquarters just outside Delhi (Gurgaon), and 11 regional hubs covering one or more of the total of 22 telecom circles. Hub head offices are located in the following cities:

* Kochi- Kerala Circle
* Chennai - Chennai, Tamil Nadu
* Bangalore - Karnataka Circle
* Hyderabad - Andhra Pradesh Circle
* Kolkata - Kolkata, West Bengal & Orissa Circle
* Delhi / Noida (NCR) - Delhi, Western Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand & Rajasthan
* Patna - Bihar & Jharkhand Circle
* Mumbai - Mumbai, Maharashtra & Gujarat Circle
* Lucknow
* Guwahati
* Chandigarh
* Indore

To quickly launch mobile services only nine months after the foundation of the new company, Uninor has entered into network and base station service agreements with partners. Tower sharing agreements are concluded with Wireless-TT Info Service Limited and Quippo Telecom Infrastructure Limited. Telecommunications, network and radio equipment is to be supplied by Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei Technologies India, Nokia Siemens Networks and Ericsson. The company's IT services and infrastructure is to be shared with Wipro Technologies.
Network Codes

Kerala 405 821, Delhi 405 844, Andhra Pradesh 405 819, Assam Uninor 405 875, Bihar/Jharkhand 405 876, Gujarat 405 927, Haryana 405 813, Himachal Pradesh 405 814, Jammu & Kashmir 405 815, Karnataka 405 820, Madhya Pradesh 405 928, Maharashtra & Goa 405 929, Mumbai 405 926, North East 405 877, Orissa 405 878, Punjab 405 816, Rajasthan 405 817, Tamil Nadu incl chennai 405 925, Uttar Pradesh (E) 405 879, Uttar Pradesh (W) 405 818, Kolkata 405 822 and West Bengal 405 880

The uninor service is currently availabe in 8 circles as on 1'st of January 2010: 1.Uttar Pardesh(West)+Uttrakhand, 2.Uttar Pradesh(East), 3.Bihar+Jharkhand, 4.Karnataka, 5.Andhra Pradesh, 6.Tamil Nadu, 7.Kerala & 8.Orissa

Also the testing of network in the circles of Kolkata [IND 822] and Rest of Bengal [IND 880] is going on and services will be launched in these two circles in March 2010.