Uninor begins refunding unutilised money on pre-paid accounts

Uninor, the Indian joint venture between Norway's Telenor Group and Indian realty firm Unitech, has begun refunding unutilised money of its pre-paid customers in Mumbai and helping them port their connections to other service providers.

The GSM operator had closed down its services in Mumbai circle on 16 February 2013, following the Supreme Court that operators who did not win spectrum in the previous auction should shut down operations with immediate effect (See: SC order leaves Telenor's Indian subscribers disconnected).

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the country's telecom regulator, had also directed Uninor to refund the balance amount of its subscribers money in Mumbai and Kolkata within 15 days, where it closed down its operations.

"With this directive now out, Uninor will immediately begin offering porting codes to its Mumbai subscribers. Additionally, the company had already started the balance refund process at five of its stores in Mumbai," the company said in a statement.

Till Sunday, Uninor had already disbursed an approximate amount of over Rs4 lakh as refunds.

''Refunding unutilised balance, though a daunting exercise, is also the right thing to do – the very least we can for our customers affected by this sudden Court-ordered closure in Mumbai,'' said Sigve Brekke, managing director, Uninor.

''We have been requesting the TRAI to allow number portability for our Mumbai customers. We are thankful to the regulator for accepting our request. Since we had already put the entire process in place while awaiting approvals for launch, Uninor can start providing MNP codes to customers immediately,'' Brekke added.