VIDEO INTERVIEW: Jon Fredrik Baksaas, Telenor CEO, said his main focus over the next 12 months is to bring the internet to as many of the group’s customers as possible and that Asia, in particular, has high potential for growth.

“3G licences came late in many [Asian] markets… and the price of 3G internet-enabled handsets is now dropping below $100,” he told Mobile World Live. “But handset prices need to get much lower than that if we are to connect all our customers in Asia.”

As well as a strong presence in Nordic markets, Telenor has operations in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Malaysia and Thailand.

There’s lots of scope for internet-led growth at a group level. Of Telenor’s customer base of around 170 million subscribers, only 20 per cent are active mobile internet users.

Baksaas is confident too that Telenor will make a success of its newly-acquired licence in Myanmar, despite various logistical challenges and difficult land access. “We feel we have the collective competence in the Telenor Group, gained from other experiences in Asia… to select the most efficient go-to-market exercise,” he said.

As GSMA chairman, Baksaas is also focusing on how to grow the relevance of the trade association’s membership in the eyes of consumers, as well as pushing for 4G interoperability and seamless roaming.

Regulation in Europe, however, remains a concern. “We need regulatory structures that incentivise investments,” he said.

Watch the whole interview here.