Announcing its strategy to tap the fast-growing Internet users market in India, Uninor, on Monday, said it would offer cheap and customised Internet packs to double its 2G mobile Internet business by the end of 2014.
“We are now expanding strategy of Uninor from voice to Internet service...We are moving out of volume-based Internet offering to service-based. With new plans, we are looking at both first-user and mass market like students and other price-sensitive segment,” Uninor’s (nominated) CEO Morten Karlsen Sorby told journalists here.
The company unveiled unlimited Internet plans starting 50 paise an hour to Rs.15 a month for using social networking site Facebook on mobile phones and social media application WhatsApp for Re.1 a day to Rs.15 a month. Uninor, with presence in six telecom circles, has about 80 lakh Internet users out of its total subscriber base of 3.4 crore.
“With these plans, we will be able to increase our target which is double our revenue from Internet service as well as increase our active Internet customer base...We are looking for user who want to use Facebook and WhatsApp for short time, frequently and without worrying for how much data they are consuming. It can be used for text messaging or chat comfortably,” said Uninor Chief Product Officer and Head of Internet Project Amaresh Kumar. Asked whether this offer would hurt SMS revenue, Mr. Sorby said they had accounted for it. “If Internet is the trend, we will have to go that way...What customers do with Internet is to use it for services such as Facebook or WhatsApp. Our plan is to make these services the cheapest on Uninor. For us, Internet will always be about affordability and relevance,” he added.
About the company’s future plans, he said Uninor would invest Rs.600 crore in India to expand its network coverage in the existing service area by deploying 5,000 additional mobile towers.
