Telenor will be
forced to exit India if the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai) proposals to auction airwaves at 13 times the price used in 2008 are accepted, Group Executive Vice-president Sigve Brekke has said.
The Norwegian firm had entered the Indian
telecom space with Uninor the brand, in partnership with infrastructure major Unitech.
"If these recommendations become policy, then the Government of India will be forcing Telenor Group to exit. It will be almost impossible for us to participate in the upcoming auctions," Brekke said in a statement.
EXCLUSIVE: Critical to be present in India, says BrekkeTrai had last week recommended that the government should auction 5 MHz of airwaves in the 1800 MHz band and companies will have to pay a minimum Rs 3,622.18 crore for every unit of spectrum.
This is about 13-fold increase over what they paid in 2008 when licences were given under the then telecom minister A Raja, when permits were bundled with 6.2 MHz of 2G spectrum for Rs 1,659 crore.
Telecom Commission, the highest decision-making body in the sector, is meeting on Monday to decide on the recommendations put forward by Trai.
Telenor said it has invested over $3 billion since buying a
majority stake in the telecom business of Indian real estate major Unitech - Unitech Wireless - in 2008, which was renamed as Uninor.
EXCLUSIVE: Uninor continues to get subscriber support It holds around 67 per cent stake in Uninor whose all 22 telecom licences were cancelled by the
Supreme Court on February 2 along with other 100 licences belonging to various telecom companies.
The Indian JV of the company had over 38 million subscribers on its network by end of January 2012 according to Trai data.
The Supreme Court has asked the government to conduct fresh auction for the spectrum by August 31 and licences of the company will remain valid till September 7.
Telenor had said it will participate in the fresh round of auctions, though
with a new minority Indian partner (in compliance with Indian laws).
Brekke, who also heads the Group's Asia operations, added the government will not be following the Supreme Court order if the Trai proposals were accepted.
"We believe that with these recommendations, the government will not be following the court order. We hope that the government will look at issues such as only 5 Mhz in the auctions, participation not just for fresh license seekers but all operators and impractical rollout obligations, in addition to the reserve price, when it devises the auction rules," he added.
With PTI inputs
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