Norway's Minister of Trade and Industry, Trond Giske, has travelled to India in an attempt to open up Telenor's communication with India's finance minister and save the mobile carrier's investments in India.
Giske and Telenor's CEO Jan Fredrik Baksaas traveled to New Delhi last week, where Giske had meetings with India's Minister of Finance Pranab Mukherjee and the Minister of Trade and Industry, Anand Sharma.
Giske points out that this is an important isue, since the Norwegian government owns 54 per cent of Telenor's shares.
"We have managed to come to an agreement with the minister of finance on a political level," Giske tells Aftenposten. "This is not just about the NOK 17 million that Telenor has invested in India. It's also about Telenor's future revenues in a country where they have 42 million clients.
Mukherjee has a key position in what has become a complicated case regarding the licenses provided by the Indian government for mobile services. Due to revelations of corruption, the government decided to withdraw 122 licenses that were granted back in 2008, which means that Telenor could lose 22 licenses through their Indian subsiduary, the phone company Uninor.
What Giske wanted to get across to his colleagues in India was the importance of not having a gap between the time when the government withdraws the existing licenses and when they announce the release of new ones, Aftenposten reports.
"It would be a catastrophe if Telenor loses all of their 42 million clients in this process," Giske explains. "This perspective was met with understanding by India's Minister of Trade and Industry Pranab Mukherjee," he adds.
Giske also fears an open auction of the new licenses, which would only be in favor of the biggest mobile carriers. The telecommunications authorities will most likely announce how the auctions will take place on Monday.
(Aftenposten)
Julie Ryland
