Word: phoning
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What it did have, though, was experience. Telenor adopted gsm - the global standard for digital mobile telecoms - as early as 1993, and had pioneered gsm's precursor more than a decade earlier. By the late '90s, mobile-phone penetration levels in Norway were more than double those in France and Germany, according to telecom consultancy Analysys. In light of deregulation, Telenor's savvy for nurturing a customer base from the early stages to maturity looked like its strongest export...
Asia's less developed cell-phone markets soon became targets. The company launched into Bangladesh's fledgling sector in 1997 convinced, says Jon Fredrik Baksaas, Telenor's CEO, that "mobile communications are as important in this kind of society as in Scandinavia." Once Grameenphone, its business in Bangladesh, was up and running, Telenor sought fresh openings in markets offering rapid growth, and gradually accrued controlling stakes in local Thai and Malaysian operators. When Pakistan invited bids for a license to operate from 2005, Telenor jumped at the chance...
...recent note. Since Telenor took control of Malaysian operator DiGi in 2001, for example, that business has expanded "from a small, niche player to one of the driving forces in the market," says Espen Torgersen, telecoms analyst at Carnegie, a Nordic investment bank. Now the third largest cell-phone operator in Malaysia, DiGi's operating profits grew by a third last year to $454 million; subscriber numbers rose by a fifth to 6.4 million...
...appear even brighter. Subscriber numbers at Grameenphone swelled by 53% last year to 16.5 million, giving the firm half the market. In Pakistan, Telenor's user numbers more than doubled. (Back in Norway, the customer base grew by just 5%.) Yet fewer than 50% of Pakistanis own a cell phone; in Bangladesh, the rate is even lower...
That leaves Telenor vast potential for expansion in South Asia. Meeting demand in Pakistan, where Telenor is the third largest operator with roughly a fifth of the country's market, requires adaptability. In rural Sindh province, for example, Telenor Pakistan sells cell-phone credits to women who pass them on to poor neighbors for two cents each; in urban centers, it sells youngsters sms messaging in prepay packages. Targeting a range of customers is bringing rewards. Sales in Pakistan almost tripled last year to $632 million; Tore Johnsen, the Norwegian in charge of Telenor Pakistan, expects that rapid growth...