Norway’s Telenor-owned Uninor slips into red zone
7 May 2015 11:09 PM GMT
Telecom operator Uninor, owned by Norwegian firm Telenor, on Wednesday reported an operating loss of about Rs 127 crore in the first quarter ended March 31, 2015. The company posted a profit of about Rs 1,561 crore a year ago due to refund of licence fee to the tune of Rs 1,660 crore from the Indian government. The revenue of Uninor during the reported quarter grew about 19 per cent to about Rs 1,107.7 crore from about Rs 930 crore in the same quarter a year ago.
“The growth in (Uninor) subscriptions and the decline in average revenue per user (ARPU) resulted in a revenue growth in local currency of 19 per cent compared with the same quarter last year, of which a large share of the growth is coming from the increased coverage deployed during 2014,” Telenor said in a statement. The exchange rate of the rupee to Norwegian Krone declined to average of 8 in the first quarter of 2015 from about 10 in the same period a year ago. The Telenor Group profit after taxes increased by about 10 per cent to Norwegian Krone (NOK) 4,053 million (about Rs 3,246 crore) in the reported quarter from NOK 3,676 million (about Rs 3,700 crore).
Telecom accounts for 1.93% of India’s GDP
The government on Wednesday said the telecom sector in 2013-14 generated over Rs 2.19 lakh crore revenue, which accounted for 1.93 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).
Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in a written reply to the Lok Sabha said that for 2013-14, revenue generated by telecom sector stood at Rs 2,19,357 crore and the GDP stood at Rs 1,13,45,056 crore. Telecom revenue was 1.93 per cent of the GDP. The Minister said for 2012-13, telecom revenue was Rs 2,07,498 crore whereas the GDP was Rs 99,88,540 crore and telecom revenue contributed 2.07 per cent to the GDP. The figures for 2011-12 stood at Rs 1,85,930 crore as telecom revenue and Rs 88,32,012 crore as GDP. Telecom revenue contributed 2.10 per cent to the GDP. "The government has formulated a comprehensive action plan which aims to address the issues in the telecom sector. These issues are broadly classified as related to policy strategies, broadband strategy,” Prasad said.
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