The fall in prices of telecom equipment is turning good for operators such as Telenor which is in the process of rolling its mobile network in India. The company has trimmed its planned capex for India by Rs 3,500 crore or roughly $ 700 million over a period of five years. The original capex was Rs 15,500 crore for five years.

The move follows earlier announcement in September when the company had similarly slashed its planned capex in India from Rs 4,600 crore to Rs 2,500-Rs3,000 crore for the year 2009.

“The market share ambition (of 8%) and other financial targets, including EBITDA break-even approximately three years after launch and operating cash flow break-even approximately five years after launch, are still valid,” said Telenor in a statement.

The company is aiming to go in for a focused rollout in its pan-India rollout plan and thus aims to save on opex.

It claims to have signed agreements with over 1,000 distributors in India and has already set-up 12,000 base stations across the planned areas of operations.

The company has received approval from the FIPB to increase its stake to 67.25 % in Uninor.