Who Should Telenor Partner With?

Telenor ASA is looking to partner with an Indian company now that its tie-up with the real-estate giant, Unitech is history.

The company is reportedly in talks with Tata Teleservices Ltd. for a potential collaboration. According to some reports, it is also in talks with Anil Agarwal of Vedanta Group for a potential alliance.

Telenor needs to finalize its local partner to keep its Indian dream alive. Light Reading India spoke to analysts to find out what will be a right fit for Telenor, a company which has emerged as one of the most promising new players. The company has been facing tough times since the cancellation of its 21 licenses by the country's apex court in February this year.

A section of analysts and industry watchers believe that Telenor should try to form an alliance with another telecom company which has knowledge about the industry workings. "A number of companies [like Mahindras] had tried to enter the telecom market earlier so Telenor should try with these kind of companies," says Rahul Gupta, Analyst at Strategy Analytics.

"Telenor should be more smart this time and try to do something unique and innovative. Maybe they should look for a Virgin Mobile-like arrangement with Tata Teleservices," says Katyayan Gupta, Analyst at Forrester Research Inc.

Many believe that Telenor should explore collaboration with Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL). The company has pan-India Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) which it plans to use to offer Long Term Evolution Time Division Duplex (LTE-TDD) services. However, voice is not available on LTE as of now and hence a tie-up with Telenor would be perfect for both.

"It is a good option definitely, and it will enable Reliance Industries to offer voice services as well. At the same time, they might be reluctant because nobody knows how the equation between the two brothers [Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani] will evolve in future," says Rahul Gupta of Strategy Analytics.

On the other hand, not everyone thinks that Reliance Industries will be the best option. "Initial launch of BWA services will not be on handhelds so voice is not such a big concern for RIL. Besides by the time they launch, VoLTE [Voice Over LTE] might become a reality so they might not have to partner with anyone," says Katyayan Gupta, Analyst at Forrester Research Inc. (See and Bharti 4G Launch: What It Means For RIL.)

Gagandeep Kaur, Editor, Light Reading India