Uninor: Internetization in India

By Linda Xu

Uninor is Norwegian giant Telenor’s branch in India, serving some 46 million 2G customers. 2014 saw Telenor announce “Internet for all” as one of its long-term strategic goals, while 2015 saw the Indian government reflect a similar sentiment in the form of its “Digital India” initiative, which should help clear a path towards Uninor’s goal of 50% Internet penetration amongst its customers by 2017. CEO Vivek Sood has the details on what Uninor is doing to help bring its customers online – an agenda that focuses on demand as much as supply.

Affordability is crucial

WinWin: What are the barriers to Internet access in India, and what is Uninor doing to alleviate them?

Mr. Sood: The Internet has experienced exponential growth in the Indian market, especially due to the increased affordability of smartphones. We position ourselves as a mass market operator in India. The Indian telecom market is in transition, and Uninor sees the increasing need for its customers to connect at an affordable price. Uninor’s Internet strategy is in line with its operating model of being best in basics, with affordable pricing for the mass market. In India, the biggest constraint has been that consumers either don't see the Internet as having that relevance, or they don’t know how to use the Internet. So our focus on technology would be driving applications and services which are relevant for the mass market and also ensuring that we actually provide the ability to easily use the Internet.

With Facebook and Whatsapp becoming a basic need for most customers, it was natural for Uninor to offer these services on its platform. Uninor is taking the lead in service-based offerings of good quality, while maintaining the “Sabse Sasta” (a Hindi phrase meaning “cheapest”) brand proposition. In India, consumers are rather price- conscious. Affordability of services will be a key driver of growth. “Sabse Sasta Facebook” and “Sabse Sasta Whatsapp,” give subscribers unlimited access to these services at one fixed charge for a period ranging from one hour to one month. With just a one-time charge, subscribers can use Facebook and Whatsapp for the duration of the period without worrying about volume.

Transformation is a must

WinWin: With a 4G LTE launch expected later this year, what is Uninor doing to Internetize its services?

Mr. Sood: Actually we’re leading the forefront in 4G evolution. In the mass market, consumers aren’t interested in calling up every time they have a problem. They are interested in using services more efficiently. What we will be driving is high-level self-help customer services based on the web. People can do the services on their own through digital platforms. We need to have a backend platform to facilitate the self-help process.

For call centers, we plan to reduce dependency on agents and develop more utilities towards the digital side. We're also building our retail position by having our own shops. We have over 1,500 shops and plan to grow to over 2,000. Our consumers will come into shops not only for service but also for experience to really learn about new technology and how to use relevant applications on the Internet.

We see that 4G terminal prices are coming down sharply. They will still be more expensive in India, because 3G is a more evolved technology in India. We are working with various partners, including Huawei, to customize terminals based on real consumer needs. We may have to do some bundling or subsidization.

We will also cooperate with Huawei to revamp our network capacity and efficiency, which is called the “Parivartan Project.” Parivartan means transformation. We want to transform ourselves to be ready for the future, be scalable, and more efficient. However, the network alone can’t sort out a transformation agenda. It has to be supported with an IT agenda as well. Our focus has been on the BSS front. We've been looking at cloud technology and making our CRM system more agile and simple to use.

Digital India

WinWin: What are Uninor’s thoughts on the Digital India initiative as a whole?

Mr. Sood: Uninor is in favor of the Digital India strategy. For India’s all-inclusive growth, the most important way is to ensure last-mile connection in the remote villages. We believe that the last-mile connection will never be fiber or direct connection. It will always be mobile. The Internet user base has grown by 40% over the last year. Of these users, around 50% accessed the Internet only through mobile. This represents huge potential for Uninor to penetrate the mass market with mobile internet services and build on our ambition of “Internet for all.” We are also getting actively engaged in developing mobile application in the areas of finance, health and education.

WinWin: The digital literacy rate is relatively low in India. What steps are Uninor taking to bridge this gap?

Mr. Sood: As I said earlier, the relevance of services is extremely important. Before you get to the relevance of services, you need to educate people as to why and how they should use the Internet. We just launched our Grahak Shiksha Kendras' (GSKs), or customer education hubs, across six operational telecom circles in April. The GSKs will act as awareness centers where existing and potential customers can walk in to get information related to Uninor's voice and Internet services. We have developed an in-house curriculum to train customer relationship executives for the awareness initiative at these stores. We’re also conducting workshops to propagate the benefits of Internet usage and best practices to adopt safe Internet and avoid transactions that are not intended. We will convert 200 retail stores across six operational circles into GSKs in the first half of 2015 and another 300 GSKs are expected by year’s end.