Norwegian telecom company Telenor Group on Thursday (December 17) announced that it has surpassed the mark of 200 million mobile subscribers globally.
“Today, Telenor is in the hands of more than 200 million people from Malaysia to Norway. Telenor´s early explorers of the 1990s aspired to bring the benefits of mobile communications to everyone, but they could hardly have imagined the impact we witness now,” said Sigve Brekke, President and CEO of Telenor Group.
Telenor Group is present in 13 markets across Asia and Europe. The company entered Hungary 21 years ago and established its first Asian operation in 1996. Telenor Group has added more than 170 million subscribers in the past decade.
Commenting on the milestone Sharad Mehrotra, CEO, Telenor India said, “We at Telenor India are proud to be the leading contributor of subscriber growth adding over 5 million customers in the last 11 months.
China Mobile is the largest telecom service provider in the world with a total subscription base of over 820 million. Market share of the second largest company Vodafone is near 449 million.
“With a strong position on being the most affordable service provider we have attracted the mass market customers and managed to be the 4th biggest in revenue and customer market share in the circles we operate,” said Mehrotra..
Among Telenor’s business units, India contributes over 24 per cent of its total customer base. Telenor had launched mobile services here in 2009, and is commercially available in six circles covering 50 per cent of India’s population.
India is currently the second-largest telecommunication market and has the third highest number of internet users in the world . In May 2015, total telephone subscription stood at 1,002 million. Bharti Airtel Ltd, Vodafone India Ltd and Idea Cellular Ltd are India’s top three telecom operators with a combine market share of 56..5 per cent.
BW Reporters
The author is Senior Correspondent with BW Businessworld
