Mumbai:
Telecom operator Uninor closed its Mumbai operations from midnight on Saturday following a Supreme Court order. The court had cancelled 22 licences of Uninor in February 2012.
"...the Court has ordered an immediate closure of operations and no temporary license too is available to allow a gradual process. Unfortunately, we have no choice now but to follow the Court's order and close down our network immediately," Managing Director of Uninor Sigve Brekke said in a statement.
"I was using a Uninor SIM. It is stopped now and I can't contact anybody. Had we been told earlier we could have changed service. Now it is creating problem. The company should have told us about it, it is wrong," said Sidharth, a Uninor customer.
"Many of our works have got disturbed, my phone is not working. We did not know about it, my business contacts are not working," said Pradip, another disgruntled customer.
The majority stakeholder of the company, Telenor, participated in November 2012 auction through new entity Telewings Communications and won spectrum in six circles.
Telenor is now in process of transferring business of Uninor in Maharashtra and Goa, Gujarat, UP East, UP West, Bihar and Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh service areas, to Telewings Communications.
Uninor said its operations in these service areas "will continue as fresh spectrum for 20 years has already been secured."
Uninor said it will sign roaming agreements with other operators to ensure that all Uninor customers get seamless connectivity when travelling to Mumbai.
"All Uninor customers from Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat and other circles will continue to be able to use their Uninor phones in Mumbai," the statement said.