Uninor is planning to scale down its operations in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, and Odisha, and focus on remaining operations where in they have a better grip on the market. The company would maintain a basic operational presence across these four circles, however would maintain a smaller network and limited service.
The company has about 40 Million subscribers across the other 9 circles – Kolkata, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh East, Uttar Pradesh West, Bihar and Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Goa, Mumbai and Gujarat. Uninor has remained among the top operators in Kolkata and West Bengal, which are their most successful operations, and they plan to allocate additional resources for expansion in these two circles. The expansions would see additional investment in network as well as distribution.
These activities, are being seen as move prior to participating in the 2G auctions, and the company looking at emerging strong financially and operationally post these moves. The scaling down of operations in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, and Odisha, may see about 400 – 500 employees, getting impacted. While some of them may be reallocated to other operations, some may also have to exit. Apart from direct employees, the company also has about 1500 people indirectly working for the company, its distribution channel, vendors in these circles.