Unitech not to join India 3G auction

NEW DELHI, INDIA: India's Unitech Wireless, which on Thursday launched mobile services with Telenor, will not participate in national auction of 3G mobile frequency, the president and chief executive of the Norwegian telecom firm said.

The company, however, will evaluate bidding for "select" 3G mobile zones, Jon Fredrik Baksaas told reporters here.

Telenor, which last year bought into Unitech Wireless floated by Indian realty Unitech Ltd, launched its services in seven out of 22 mobile zones in India amid an intense tariff war in the world's fastest-growing wireless market.

Meanwhile, Telenor said it is setting a goal of 8 per cent market share by 2018.

The company, which would charge 29 paise per minute for local calls and 49 paise for national long distance calls, is staying away from a per-second billing plan.

"Per-second billing is not necessarily a feature customers are looking for," Telenor Group chief executive Jon Fredrik Baksaas told reporters after the launch. "We will have a fair share of the market."