GrameenPhone customer centres now open everyday

The GrameenPhone customer centres will remain open every day even on all public holidays. This will make GP's after-sales services more available for the subscribers, says a press release.

At the same time, the working hour of the GP customer centres has also been extended from 8am to 8pm every day.

The GP customer centres are providing after-sales services like SIM replacement, reconnection, migration, address change, itemized billing, unbarring/payment information and information about GP products, features and services.

GrameenPhone presently has eight customer centres across the country. Among them, four centres are in Dhaka --Gulshan, Motijheel, Dhanmondi and Uttara.

The remaining four are located in Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi and Sylhet.

In addition, GrameenPhone has also established 152 service desks in 50 districts around the country which also provide after-sales services.

These GPSDs are located at some of the existing GP points of sales and are open from 10am to 6pm from Sunday to Thursday.

BRAC Bank to offer banking services through GP mobile

BRAC Bank Ltd. signed an agreement with GrameenPhone Ltd. recently to offer financial services to its clients through SMS (Short Message Services).

Under the agreement, the clients of BRAC Bank will be able to check their account details and status of issued cheques through SMS. They will also able to place request for bank statements and cheque books through SMS.

Only the joint subscribers of GrameenPhone and BRAC Bank will enjoy the facility which will be available soon.

The agreement was signed by GrameenPhone Marketing Division Director Kafil HS Muyeed and BRAC Bank Retail Banking Head Saifuddin M Naser.

BRAC Bank Senior Manager (IT) Syed Abdul Momen, Manager (Marketing and Product Development) Zahid Ibne Hai, Officer (Marketing and Product Development) Jame Rasheed, and GrameenPhone Head of Market Research and Development Rubaba Dowla Matin, Head of Value Added Service Lars Armyr and Deputy Manager (Value Added Service) Azizul Abedin were also present.

GrameenPhone extends EDGE to Sylhet

The largest cellphone operator of the country GrameenPhone Monday extended its EDGE (enhanced data rates for global evolution) technology, a high-speed mobile internet and data service, to the Sylhet region.

Earlier, EDGE service was available in Dhaka and Chittagong after its commercial launching on September.

'The GP subscribers in Sylhet now can enjoy services such as downloading video and music clips, sending and receiving multimedia messages, accessing the internet and sending and receiving e-mail,' said Grameenphone managing director Erik Aas at a meet the press in Sylhet on Monday.

He told newsmen that the population wise coverage of GrameenPhone across the country was 55 per cent at beginning of the year which would be 90 per cent at the end of this year.

'We have spent around $300 million this year alone in network expansion,' said Erik, adding that GP has recently crossed the 5 million subscribers mark.

Erik Aas said call charges have already reduced in two phases during this year and it will be continued further.

'I believe the number of mobile subscribers will be increased if the government reduces tax on SIM card and the tariff will also come down further if the operators get more subscribers.'

He told that a total of 150 service desks of GrameenPhone have been launched across the country, including nine desks in the Sylhet region to ensure availability of the services.

GrameenPhone general manager (information) Syed Yamin Bakht and deputy general manager Awlad Hussain were also present.

GrameenPhone reiterates demand for tax cut on SIM cards

GrameenPhone Ltd, the leading cellphone operator, yesterday reiterated its demand for tax cut on SIM cards to boost the growth of mobile phone industry.

Tk 900 tax on SIM cards has slowed down the growth of mobile phone subscription growth in the country, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of GrameenPhone Erik Aas told a press briefing at a hotel in Sylhet.

'If the government reduces the tax the market will see a major change in terms of growth,' Aas said.

Syed Yamin Bakht, general manager (Information), and Aulad Hossain, regional head of the company, also spoke at the function.

The GP officials were on an official visit to the divisional city.

'By the end this year there will be some 90 lakh customers in the country. But the number could have been 1.2 crore had there been no tax on the SIM cards,' said Aas.

AKTel customer care centre at Uttara

Country's second largest cellphone operator AKTel opened its 11th customer care centre at Uttara in Dhaka on Thursday.

Ahmad Bin Ismail, managing director of the company, inaugurated the centre at a function, says a press release.

Vijay Watson, chief operating officer, Fazlur Rahman, director (Coordination), among other senior officials, were present at the inauguration.

Banglalink offers new prepaid plan

Country's one of the cellphone operator Banglalink urged the government to rethink whether it would be financially viable to allow any more companies for mobile operation.

Banglalink chief commercial officer Mehboob Chowdhury, at a briefing to announce a new prepaid package, Be Linked, in Dhaka on Wednesday, said the government should look into whether the market could absorb a growing number of operators.

'How many operators can a market take? It is an important question which the government needs to find an answer to,' he said.

Citing examples of Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore where at the beginning there were more than three operators now reduced to only three, Mehboob urged the government to think before allowing any more operators.

'We have told the government of the experiences of other countries and hope it would think whether allowing more operators would be viable,' he said.

There are now five mobile operators, with a base of about 80 lakh subscribers, and another company would soon be given licence.

Mehboob reiterated his company’s plan to grab more share of the growing market. ‘We will continue to offer the lowest price. If a company announces lower price plan, we will further reduce our charges.’

Banglalink now covers 57 districts and by the end of the year, it will cover 61 districts, he said.

He said some mobile operators in Europe were trying to replicate its idea of the Ladies, First package, which contributed to a 600 per cent increase in female users of Banglalink.

The new package, Be Linked, offers Tk 4.40 a minute and a 30-second pulse for calls to any mobile operators, which Banglalink officials said, is the ‘lowest peak-hour rate.’

The package has a discounted rate of Tk 3 a minute between 7:00 am and 10:00 am for calls to any operators and Tk 2.5 a minute throughout the day for calls to Banglalink numbers.

New AKTEL package launched

AKTel, the second largest cellphone operator in Bangladesh, on Tuesday launched a new prepaid product, AKTel Exceed, with a new tariff plan to be available from today.

The tariff plan is available in two packages. Mobile Standard, with full standard landline connectivity, will cost Tk 1,550 and Mobile Link, a mobile to mobile plan, will cost Tk 550.

During peak hours, between 8:00 am and 8:00 pm, AKTel Exceed customers will need to pay Tk 1.9 a minute for calls to other AKTel numbers and Tk 2.4 a minute for calls to the numbers of other operators. But in all the cases, there is a connection fee of Tk 2.4 a call in addition to the minute-counted charge.

'We recognise that high tariff has always been a barrier for Bangladeshi mobile users, and with the launch of this product, AKTel is once again getting clearly ahead of other operators,' said Asif Iqbal, head of marketing of AKTel at a news briefing at the Sheraton Hotel.

'The tariff plan targets high- end users who want to speak longer within budget, as it will provide them significantly more talk time at the same cost,' Asif said.

The Exceed tariff plan is built into a new product package, especially marked with the AKTel Exceed logo that will be available on the market from today at authorised outlets and customer care centres. The new offer will continue till February 28, 2006.

The existing users of prepaid plan can also migrate to the Exceed tariff plan by texting ‘exceed’ to 8MIG (8644), with a service charge of Tk 100.

AKTel chief executive officer Vijay Watson said the new product was ‘exciting’ and would help to increase customer base of the operator, now at more than 22 lakh.

GrameenPhone crosses 5 million subscribers mark

GrameenPhone Limited (GP), the country’s largest mobile phone operator, recently crossed the landmark of 5 million subscribers.

The subscriber base of the company has become more than a double in the first 10 months of the current year.

Started the year with nearly 2.4 million subscribers, GrameenPhone reached the 3 million subscribers landmark in March and 4 million in September.

The Eid sales campaign in October received a very good response. Both the prepaid — Easy, Easy Gold and djuice — and post-paid packages were offered at very attractive prices during the campaign.

'This is a remarkable achievement as we had only 4 million users in September,' the GrameenPhone managing director, Erik Aas, said in a statement.

He said all their customers had appreciated the tariff reductions from early October, and combined with the successful Eid campaign they had seen a huge demand for all the GP products.

GrameenPhone has built the largest network with the widest coverage — 400 upzilas in 61 districts — and holds 62 percent shares of the country’s mobile phone market.

Nearly 80 per cent of the country’s population has been brought under the coverage of the GrameenPhone network.

Bangladesh lags in Internet use in business

The use of the Internet in the areas of commerce and trade in the developing world is high, showing the highest rate in Africa. But in Bangladesh the Internet growth rate is slow due to its non-affordability and inaccessibility.

Though non-industrialised regions have already faced numerous obstacles in the areas of business facing a competitive disadvantage as businesses around the world increasingly use the Internet, which is proving to have great advantages for development in the world’s poorer nations, a new United Nations Conference on Trade and Development report said.

ISPAB president Akhtaruzzaman Manzu, however, told the news agency Sunday that though the country could not provide statistics on the topic, Internet through Broadband and dialup connection have not been used in the entire business arena.

Moreover, in the country, there is no regulation in Internet service including VoIP, he said, adding that the growth rate of the Internet is about 7 per cent though the PSTN service is
also slow and the total Internet system is not cost-effective.

He hoped that the introduction of the Submarine cable network would change the scenario and make the country increase the use of Internet, especially in the business sector.

Bangladesh is not only to extend Internet access widely to businesses but to standardise their banking, credit, accounting and cyber security systems to enable domestically based firms to play on a level field with international competitors, according to some ICT leaders, he added.

Meanwhile, the Information Economy Report 2005 pointed out that use of the Internet for obtaining and providing business information, carrying out financial transactions, setting up deals, and finding and nurturing customers is growing rapidly in a limited number of developing countries that have succeeded in participating in the wired economy.

Although use of Internet in South-East Asia and other developing regions is higher, even in China - the world’s second-largest Internet market - there is an Internet penetration rate of only 7.2% inhabitants.

The gap in business use between the developed and non-developed world appears to be vast, the report states. Some 89 per cent of enterprises in European Union nations are connected to the Internet. Figures are scarce for developing countries, but while Trinidad and Tobago, where 77 per cent of firms are connected, and Singapore (76 per cent), have high rates of business use, connections in Mauritius (5 per cent) and Thailand (9 per cent) are much lower.

The report states that broadband is spreading quickly in developed countries and in a few Asian developing nations, but most of the world’s poorer countries lag far behind.

Broadband penetration rates of less than 1 per cent were found even in nations relatively advanced in information and communication technology, such as South Africa, Mauritius, Egypt and Tunisia.

Similarly, while e banking and other financial services are used by 68 per cent of enterprises in the EU, almost no developing economies covered by the UNCTAD survey report are employing the Internet for these purposes.

UNCTAD is participating in a global Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development to coordinate work on ICT statistics and to help developing countries collect comparable data.

Teletalk may borrow money to improve network

The state-owned mobile phone operator, Teletalk Bangladesh Ltd, is thinking of borrowing from banks to expand its network coverage across the country, officials say.

A top official of Teletalk said that the company needs around Tk 200 crore immediately, to invest in network expansion in order to solve its 'crippling network problem'.

'We need the money on an urgent basis for expansion as the customers are suffering due to poor network coverage,' said a general manager of Teletalk.

The company's 1.75 lakh customers have been plagued by poor network coverage since it started commercial operations in March this year.

The company has a plan to distribute around 2.5 lakh connections in the first phase at the cost of around Tk 796 crore, which the government financed by selling telecom bonds.

As the second phase of the project is yet to kick off, it is difficult for Teletalk to wait for government money to expand its network, said the official.

Moreover, as a public limited company, the mobile operator has to manage its own operation financing, as the government only financed the project, said the official.

'In this circumstance, we are thinking of borrowing money from banks,' said the general manager.

The official, however, said that the plan to borrow money from banks is still in the 'primary stage' and may take some time to gain concrete shape.

The official also said that some banks, including Dhaka Bank, Prime Bank, BASIC and City Bank, have already shown interest in lending money to Teletalk for network expansion.

Absence of VoIP hinders business outsourcing

The use of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is yet to be legalised in the country, just in order to protect the interests of a few IT companies, though it could pave way for earning plenty of IT outsourcing works.

The IT professionals and business leaders claimed this saying that through legalisation of the VoIP, the government would get earn a huge revenue.

The president of Internet Service Providers Association of Bangladesh (ISPAB), Akhtaruzzaman Manju, told the news agency that the system would allow the country to earn about Tk 1,000 crore in foreign exchange. 'We are not facilitated, while the VoIP is recognised across the world,' he added.

It would make the field for working in the call centres and within the first two years, about one lakh employment would be ensured, he added.

The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, herself called for the legalisation of the VoIP at a meeting of the ICT taskforce, but it did not turn into reality, said former BCS president, Mostafa Jabbar.

The chief executive officer of SkyBd, Shoeb Chowdhury, said India and Nepal, were earning huge foreign currencies through the system.

'We would ensure government revenue by receiving outsourcing from the US, Europe and Germany.'

The country experienced illegal VoIP business through many IT institutions that have 50 to 300 telephone lines and the Bangladesh Telephone and Telegraph Board was already been informed about it, Akhtaruzzaman said.

Source: Bangladesh Nws

Bangladesh Railway earns Tk 210cr from fibre optic cable lease

The ailing Bangladesh Railway has earned up to Tk 210 crore in revenues till 2004 by leasing out its under-utilised fibre optic cable network to a mobile phone operator since 1997, say railway officials.

'The amount BR has earned so far is much more than expectation,' said a top official of the railway.

'The Railway earns around Tk 80 crore in 2004 alone from the fibre optic network,' said the official adding that a clause in the agreement which says that the contract would be reviewed time to time to re-negotiate the lease amount has paved the way for higher future revenues.

The BR installed the 1600 km fibre optic network in its railway tracks across the country in 1989 at the cost of Tk 140 crore with a grant from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation and subsequently leased the network to GrameenPhone for twenty years.

However, after taking over the network, GrameenPhone has increased the length of the cable to 2,000 kilometres at its own cost.

The Railway officials said that the lease money has increased gradually over the years due to a clause in the contract which stated that the lease money would be increased proportionately with the growth of GrameenPhone’s subscribers.

According to the officials, the next review will be done in 2007, on the tenth year of the contract, and there is a possibility to increase the amount further.

However, officials at the same time feared that as the amount of money has been increasing alarmingly in every review, GrameenPhone may terminate the contract as the mobile phone operator is also building up its own fibre optic network across the country.

The GrameenPhone also bears all maintenance of the network and the salary of the of the 209 railway employees of the fibre optic network.

Syed Yamin Bakht, general manager, information, of GrameenPhone, however, said that there is no plan to terminate the contract as the fibre optic network what GP is developing is redundant and for emergency use only in case of any disruption or failure of the Railway fibre optic network.

'I think the fibre optic network has helped GP to expand its network and coverage across the country,' said Yamin.