UNINOR STARTS GSM SERVICES IN INDIA

Unitech Wireless, the joint televenture of India's real estate giant Unitech Group and Norway-based world's 6th largest telecom firm Telenor rolls out its GSM service under Uninor brand in 7 circles of India. Uninor is launched in Andra Pradesh, Bihar & Jharkhand, Tamilnadu & Chennai, Karnataka, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh (East & West). "The largest single day launch in telecom history.", as quoted in Twitter by Uninor guys.

Uninor enters India as 15th telecom brand, after Vodafone, Airtel, BSNL, MTNL, Loop Mobile, Idea Cellular, Reliance CDMA, Tata Indicom, Aircel, Reliance GSM, Virgin Mobile, MTS India, Tata DoCoMo, Ping Mobile. So Uninor is India's 10th GSM operator.

Uninor prepaid SUK comes for Rs 49 with lifetime validity and Rs 5 talktime. Uninor is giving bonus on 1st recharge, for eg, Recharge with Rs 50,100,150 and get talkvalue of Rs 55,115,175. 

Interestingly, Uninor does not follow the per-second billing, Tata Docomo-set industry's new norm, "Per-second billing is not the only feature that subscribers are looking at".

Uninor offers 2 plans - for those calls longer and for those who makes more calls. And these plans are quite confusing to understand.

Plan 1: TalkLonger 

Local calls @ 29p/min; STD calls @49p/min

here the story is for a call you have to pay 39p extra, for eg: if you talk for 10 min, you have to pay (10X29+ 39 )p= 329p. Similar for STD calls. To be brief, you have to pay (39+29)=68p for the first minute of any call(of any duration) and from the second minute it's just 29p/min. So if your habit is to call longer, opt it !

Plan 2: CallMore

local calls @29p/min; STD calls @49p/min

here the story is Daily Rental Rs.2 is applicable. To choose this plan simply dial *222*8*1# from your uninor mobile. 

SMS Rates on both Plans:

Local SMS 10p, U2U free 100 local SMS/day, while 1st offnet SMS everyday will be charged at 99p and therefore 10p. Nationa SMS is as high as Rs1.49

Points to be noted before you rushed to pick a new SIM:

• No SMS pack compared to Tata DoCoMo(100 or more local & national sms free after 1st 2 charged daily)/Reliance (1p/SMS, be it local,national or you are roaming)
• No cheaper Onnet calling pack
• GPRS is not launched like DoCoMo came with GPRS.
• #

Will I opt Uninor when it comes to Kolkata?

If uninor comes with such tariff, my answer is no! I am using MTS and Airtel now, and MTS Mcard95 gives me 1p/2s for all local calls and 1p/s STD calling for lifetime and SMSpack is worth of daily Re1 for 100 local & national SMS ! so no question about opting such tariff ! 

** Uninor Kolkata launch: February-March 2010

Watch the latest Uninor ads at http://www.uninor.in/TvAds/default.aspx

ADDITION #1

# From The Telegraph India - Telenor plans are basically of higher tariffs

Analysts said the tariff plans were more expensive compared with other operators. 

“Although local call rates are 29 paise, there is an additional fee which takes the total cost of a call to around 70 paise per minute, which is higher than some operators who are charging 30-60 paise per minute.”

Justifying the high tariff plans, Telenor Group CEO Jon Fredrik Baksaas said, “Our target market is mid-to-high- end customers.”

Telenor is also staying away from the per-second billing plan that most operators have recently announced. “Per-second billing is not necessarily a feature customers are looking for,” he said.

(Taken from http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091204/jsp/business/story_11820485.jsp)

ADDITION #2

Now from my side something to write down 

Uninor said their target is mide-to-high-end customers, I am guessing Uninor targeting mid & high ARPU users. But why high users will move to a newcomer, whether it is coming from world's 6th largest operator. Rather high-end users will stick to reliable old Airtel or Vodafone.[ in Mumbai Indicom/Idea/Loop also serves well !] Moreover Uninor doesn't intend to bid for either the 3G or broadband wireless access spectrum, expected to be auctioned in January 2010. So if you use GPRS/EDGE now, you can't get better and faster internet on mobile in future from Uninor. Earlier Uninor officials told they will not intensify tariff war, and they do so. 

Uninor has targeted to achieve 8% market share by 2018 and EBITDA break-even in 3 years, and operating cash flow break-even in 5 years. So they are not aggressive with this operation.

But India's wireless market is to get more operator - pan India basis, Loop & Videocon and Etisalat & Batelco-owned Stel to be launched in some circles. While two global players yet to be launched tariff has to reduce more in some ways.

Medianama report says: "Uninor may have officially launched its services, but we get the feeling it hasn’t shown all its cards yet "

 

ADDITION #3

Hope this is last edit, I did visit Telenor Global website - www.Telenor.com , there is a seperate India operation section - http://www.telenor.com/en/news-and-media/in-focus/india/

On the launch of Uninor in India, the press release says:

“Ab mera number hai”

Uninor will leverage from Telenor Group’s established marketing and design framework. As in several other markets where the Telenor Group is present, the brand follows Telenor’s brand strategy, combining the global position of the Telenor Group with a distinct local identity. Uninor’s tagline is “Ab mera number hai” or “My time is now”, set to target the young and ambitious individuals.

With this high tariff how they are targeting youth ! I have nothing left to comment !