Uninor today announced the launch of its services in the Orissa circle taking its footprint to 8 circles and 9 states in India.

Uninor had at the start of the month launched its GSM services in Orissa, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

“With Orissa, we complete the Blue Arc – the Uninor footprint that now sweeps seamlessly through North, East and Southern India covering India’s largest states. This also marks the completion of the first phase of our launch activities,” said Stein-Erik Vellan, Managing Director, Unitech Wireless. “While our launch project now shifts to the second phase, the main focus now is on gaining shares where we have launched. On that, we have already scored some significant gains.”

The services in Orissa will be available at over 13,762 points of sale right from the day of launch.

“The closest to the customer at launch was one of our key goals. It is our ambition to stay the closest to our customers – from how close we are available to the quality of our service and customer support and product and pricing that creates value for individual customers,” said Akash Das, EVP, Orissa, Uninor.

“Today we mark the entry into an important market, one that adds substantially to an already significant footprint. I am delighted with the pace Uninor has set in India. The Telenor Group stands firmly committed to support this operation as it grows to become a preferred mobile operator in India,” said Sigve Brekke, Executive Vice President and Head of the Telenor Asia operations.

“Uninor is on a roll. Today’s launch in Orissa, within days of a massive pan-India launch, is both a proof of capability and a sign of imminent success. I am confident of this operation’s ability to stay with the momentum as it transitions from launch towards establishing preference with its customers in India,” said Sanjay Chandra, Managing Director, Unitech Ltd.

As in other circles, the company is offering its services in Orissa under two plans, talklonger@29p and a subscription plan called callmore@29p. The talklonger@29p plan is designed for those users who make longer calls. It offers local calls at 29 paise per minute and STD calls at 49 paise per minute. It involves a call set up fee pf 39 paise when a call is activated.

The other plan, callmore@29p is designed for users who make local calls more often. It offers local calls at 29 paise per minute and STD calls at 49 paise per minute with a daily rental of Rs 2.

“If your calls are longer than 100 seconds, you cannot get better value than on Uninor. If you make multiple calls of shorter durations in a day, Uninor offers the best value,” said Stein-Erik Vellan. ” We will not blindly copy the per-second norm which we believe is much more expensive than it appears for most users. We recognise individual customers and create value for them because one size doesn’t fit all. For the majority of us who use a phone for conversation, and not one-word exchanges, no other plan in the market today can beat Uninor,” he added.

“While we will certainly be competitive on delivering value for money, we believe competition must not only be on pricing. While listening closely to our customer’s wishes, our long term focus will be on quality. And we’re in this business for the long haul,” added Vellan.