Uninor said the decision was taken due to the ongoing uncertainty about the upcoming spectrum auctions and refarming. The company can continue services until 07 September under the Supreme Court ruling from February that canceled all its licences, along with those of operators, due to irregularities inthe awards procedure. However, the government has yet to decide on the details of a planned re-auctioning of the frequencies.
Uninor said it will expands its sales and network presence in the nine core circles and focus on acquiring frequencies in these areas in the auctions. The nine circles are UP East and West, Bihar and Jharkhand, Kolkota, West Bengal, Mumbai, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Goa, and Gujarat.
The announcement was made alongside second-quarter results by parent company Telenor, which showed that Uninor halved its operating loss compared to a year ago to NOK 619 million, while revenues rose to NOK 1.034 billion from NOK 698 million. Uninor added 2.226 million customers in Q2, for a total 33.722 million at end-June. ARPU was in line with Q1 at INR 97, while capex was zero in the quarter.
