Uninor on the rise

The green shoots are beginning to show in the Indian telecom sector.

Uninor has achieved financial breakeven in two more circles--UP West and Bihar. After achieving breakeven in five of its six circles. Uninor has now achieved EBITDA break-even in UP West, UP East, Bihar (and Jharkhand), Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. That leaves out only Maharashtra, which is expected to achieve the milestone by the end of 2013.

“Uninor is well on its way to meet a commitment of pan-India breakeven that was made 3 years ago when we started. In the process, we have been able to bust prevalent myths that efficiency needs scale and profitability needs high-end services with expensive tariffs,” said Yogesh Malik, CEO of Uninor

As of end-August, Uninor had 32.5 million mobile subscribers. While UP East had 7.7 million subscribers, Maharashtra had 5.8 million and UP West 5.3 million. The advantage that Uninor has is that its lower costs per minute (upto 40% lower) and sabse sasta tariffs (upto 60% cheaper)helped it achieve its financial break-even.