Telenor's India adventure: A bold move or a nightmare foretold?

Telenor's Indian adventure had too many risky calls

Coming from a country of five million people, it was natural that Norwegian telecom giant Telenor saw juicy, low-hanging fruit in the 1.2-billion Indian market. However, it underweighed the complexities and hurdles it might face while tapping that potential.

After building a subscriber base of nearly 50 million in about eight chequered years, despite multiple setbacks, it finally gave up as it saw itself up against a 600-pound gorilla that breezed through double that many subscribers in a fraction of that time.

In the filing with Oslo Bors on October 29, 2008, announcing the $1.07-billion investment in Unitech Wireless, the