Telenor May Leave India as Fee Dispute Prompts Write-Off
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Telenor ASA said it may have to exit India, the world’s second-largest mobile market, after the country’s telecommunications regulator proposed an 11-fold increase to license fees.
Acceptance by the Indian government of the regulator’s plan would amount to “forcing Telenor Group to exit,” Sigve Brekke, head of Telenor’s Asian operations, said today by e-mail. Fornebu, Norway-based Telenor will write down its remaining fixed and intangible assets in India amounting to 3.9 billion kroner ($682 million) as a “precautionary measure,” the company, the Nordic region’s biggest phone operator, said in a separate statement.