Uninor – the new Indian mobile operator controlled by Norway’s Telenor – plans to raise more than US$1 billion from Indian lenders to fund its expansion in the country, the firm said yesterday. “The details are being worked out… we are discussing with potential lenders here in India,” Jon Fredrik Baksaas, president and chief executive of Telenor, told Dow Jones Newswires. He said the funds will be used to expand services to other parts of the country, but would not be used to acquire spectrum in next month’s 3G auctions. “Uninor will not participate in a nationwide 3G auction, we might evaluate a circle by circle approach,” said Baksaas.

Yesterday, Uninor switched on its first Indian networks in what it described as “the largest single-day launch” in India’s history. Services were launched simultaneously in the circles of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh East, Uttar Pradesh West and Bihar (including Jharkhand), covering a footprint close to 600 million people. The launch comes eight months after Telenor bought a stake in the fledgling Indian operator (which was then known as Unitech). It now owns 74 percent of the firm. It has set a goal of controlling 8 percent of the Indian market by 2018.