Designed to be the telco of the next decade, our objective is to come closer to our customer

Uninor won the most promising operator award. What are some of the success
strategies that you can share with other upcoming greenfield operators?

We spent a lot of time recruiting and training the best talent in the
industry. Besides, our lean business model also helped. Designed to be a telco-of-the-next-decade,
we outsource a lot of processes, like Genpact, Aegis and Sparsh, to provide our
undivided attention to the end customer. Also, we have not built a single tower
of our own in Indiawe rented them from Tata/Quippo. The third thing would be
our unique sales tracking system through a handheld device, which helps us take
real-time updates on stocks available at a POS, sales accomplished and
requirements.

What are your expansion plans for the Indian market?

We hold licenses for all twenty-two circles in India. With our launch in
Mumbai, Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, West Bengal and Kolkata on June, 1 we added
five more circles. So that takes our presence in India upto thirteencovering a
population footprint of close to 900 mn. We have nine more circles to roll out
yet, and we hope to do so by end of year 2010.

What are your strategies to gain more spectrum for cities where it is
missing?

We hope to launch all our circles by the end of 2010. The latest edge
technology, we are using right now has the necessary capacity to provide basic
internet services to all our customers.

What are your views on rural rollout and services targeting the masses?

Indian telecom market has huge potential, and a lot of it will come from the
rural market. In the thirteen circles that we are operating in, we are already
covering most of the markets including rural regions. Having said that, as our
brand gets more widely known in rural markets, we will be eager to meet the
local customer at grassroot level catering to his specific needs.

What are some of the main challenges you face in the Indian market?

I believe the challenge for any national operator is to recognize that India
can never be a single homogenous market. You need to think modular, customize
and localize and be as close as you can to the customer, whose needs and
expectations, sometimes within a distance of 100 km, change diametrically. The
challenge, is to create a model thats as frugal as it can be on costs, so you
are able to play the competitive game not compromising on the business case.

Any plans to introduce postpaid and if yes, when?

We are concentrating on taking one step at a time at the moment. We decided
to launch in the market with prepaid voice services, and now once we start
interacting with our customers, postpaid and other exciting VAS services will be
launched as we go along, and when we feel the time is right.

Beryl M/VOICE&DATA

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