(From left) Uninor executive vice-president (marketing) David Meneghello with his counterpart in corporate affairs Rajiv Bawa and Calcutta hub executive VP Akash Das in Calcutta on Tuesday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

New Delhi/Calcutta, June 1: Uninor — a joint venture between real estate major Unitech and Norway’s mobile player Telenor — today entered five circles, including Calcutta and Bengal.

The company, which plans to capture an 8 per cent share by 2018, also rolled out services in Mumbai, Gujarat, and Maharashtra (including Goa), taking its presence to 13 circles.

“In due course, services will be launched in the other circles where we have spectrum,” Akash Das, executive vice-president (Calcutta hub), said. Uninor has licences for all 22 circles.

Uninor will offer its dynamic pricing plan in the new circles, under which a pre-paid consumer gets discounts in different areas of a city across different time slots. The discounts can range between 5 and 60 per cent and calls may be charged between 20 and 50 paise per minute.

“In Calcutta people commute for four hours a day. The dynamic pricing can create a lot of discount opportunities,” said managing director Stein-Eric Vellan in New Delhi.

The restriction on telecom equipment imports from China is delaying the rollout of Uninor’s services.

“Network rollout and capacity addition are both hit. I assume there will be a solution that will speed up the process,” Rajiv Bawa, executive vice-president (corporate affairs), said in Calcutta.

Uninor sources equipment from Nokia and Ericsson. “We comply with the existing rules, and understand there are security concerns. But getting a clearance for every equipment will be difficult and the process is taking more time these days,” Bawa said.