Norway's Telenor is open to entry into India's growing mobile market, a move which would crown its Asia-focused investment strategy, a Reuters report said.
Media reports have linked Telenor, which has mobile operators in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand and Malaysia, to a potential move into India, the report said.
Unlike many of its markets which have already matured, India remains a fast-growth hub with huge potential, say analysts. On the other hand, the market is fragmented with very low prices.
'Concerning India, we can say that we are constantly moving around in the world assessing possibilities. (And) we have recently been in India,' Telenor spokesman Dag Melgaard, quoted by the Reuters report, said.
'We have previously also stated that India was too big (for Telenor), as we have said about China, but that doesn't stop us from assessing such possibilities,' Melgaard said.
He repeated Telenor's policy of not commenting on 'speculation' about deals, the report said.
Telenor, with more than 150 million mobile clients worldwide and worth €17.2 billion (US$25 billion), says it is the second biggest non-Asian operator in Asia after Vodafone.