Uninor, a joint venture between the world?s sixth largest telco, Telenor, and India?s Unitech Wireless, kept away from the per paisa billing that every other telecom operator introduced in India last year. The company?s target is to secure an 8% market share by 2018, be Ebidta positive in three years and cash flow positive in five years. It currently has operations in 13 circles and added 2.2 million subscribers in August. Recently, there have been reports on stakeholders suggesting that Telenor pull out of the telecom JV in India. Rajiv Bawa, executive vice-president, Uninor spoke to FE’s Nikita Upadhyay on the company?s view about staying committed to India, its strategy, consolidation in the market and survival without 3G. Excerpts:

Is the Telenor Group looking at exiting the Indian telecom market?

Telenor Group is a long-term participant in the Indian market and it continues to stay committed to India and its investment in Uninor. We have no intentions whatsoever to exit. We entered prepared for this competition. Once the dust settles on the M&A front, you will still see Uninor around with its fair share of the market.

Telenor has lowered its capex guidance for India. How much is it planning to invest now?

Telenor Group has already invested approximately Rs 6,000 crore through new equity in Uninor. This investment is being deployed as operating capital to roll out operations in the country.

Are you looking at increasing the stake in the JV?

Telenor Group currently holds 67.25% stake in Uninor and there are no immediate plans to increase this.

Uninor has not bid for 3G. How would you compete with other players on the 3G turf?

We did not bid for 3G for four key reasons. First, we felt that by far, the majority of customers are and will continue to be voice customers. On voice services, there is still a lot to be done to deliver. So this will be our focus at the time. Second, we believe that our new, congestion free 2.75G network can meet the kind of data demand that exists today. Third, by taking a decision on what route and platform to offer high-speed data closer to when there is real demand for it, we will be able to choose from many more options available to us then.

And last, we could not participate in these auctions when we haven?t yet received the spectrum we have paid for.

You have not received spectrum in Delhi and few other cities. When do you think you can attain a pan-India presence?

The 13 circles account for a population of 900 million. Of the remaining circles, we don?t have any spectrum in Delhi and are missing key districts and state capitals in Rajasthan, Assam, the North East and J&K. Our intention has always been to get into the market commercially with more than an obligatory rollout completion and compete for our market share.

In a market of 14 operators, how do you see Uninor?

Since December, Uninor on an average has contributed over 54% of net subscribers added by all new operators combined. In 12 of our 13 commercially operational circles, our net adds are higher than at least one or more established incumbent operators too.

This means that we are not only competing well, but in fact adding more subscribers every month than even some of the well established operators. We are present with over 22,000 towers, 60 offices and over 250,000 points of sale.