Telenor for consolidation of Pakistani market

OSLO: Telenor is in favour of consolidation of the fragmented Pakistani mobile market, Chief Executive, Jon Fredrik Baksaas told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.

“The rumours are there, everyone is talking about consolidation being good for the industry (in Pakistan). We will have to wait for a window of opportunity for the players to find a common solution,” Baksaas said.

“We’re still in favour of seeing that type of consolidation happening, but as you can also see Telenor is growing its position in strength, which is a good thing to do,” he added.

Referring to the Indian market, he said that Telenor would keep its present push to win market share and customer loyalty in India until at least the start of 2012, before switching focus to margins.

Analysts were sceptical about Telenor’s decision to enter India, one of the world’s biggest mobile markets but one marred with extremely thin margins.

Baksaas added that a change to per-second billing in India did not harm new entrants like Telenor but had more impact on incumbents who had to take a position on development.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 22^nd, 2010.