Telenor announced today that its Indian venture Uninor has signed up 1.2 million subscribers since launch last month. The operator launched GSM services in the circles of Uttar Pradesh (West), Uttar Pradesh (East), Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh on 3 December and in Orissa on 22 December. “In a competitive market it will never be easy, but we have a long-term ambition and we have made a positive start,” Stein-Erik Vellan, Uninor’s managing director, noted in a statement. “Considering that our subscribers currently come from only eight circles, of which one was launched towards the end of the month, these numbers are encouraging.”

By way of contrast, similarly-sized rival operator Idea notched up 2.7 million net additions in the three months of Q4 2009 according to Wireless Intelligence. Market leader Bharti, which has a nationwide presence, posted 8.9 million net additions in the period. India is the world’s second-largest, and fastest-growing, mobile market, adding around 12 million connections a month. Uninor has a goal of controlling 8 percent of the Indian market by 2018 and announced in December it plans to raise more than US$1 billion from Indian lenders to fund expansion. The operator has said it won’t buy 3G spectrum covering the entire country once licenses are put up for auction (possibly next month), but could evaluate a circle-by-circle approach.