GP aims for rural internet
Grameenphone is in talks with local device makers to find ways to bring down prices of feature phones to expand internet outreach in rural areas, Chief Executive Vivek Sood said.
The operator has doubled the speed of its each 3G package as it reached the milestone of five crore active subscribers and now plans to offer new data plans, Sood said in an interview on Thursday.
GP that serves 26 percent of the country's 4.22 crore internet users is also developing the retail channels for the sake of the internet packages, he said.
About 57 lakh of the 1.09 crore GP internet customers use 3G or high-speed internet.
The company is working to develop different types of contents and applications for its internet users and build awareness on the use of internet especially for education purposes, he said. “People should know why they need to use 3G and how to use it effectively.”
“We are also planning to build partnerships with social networking site Facebook,” Sood said.
GP internet users mainly surf social networking and entertainment sites, including Facebook and YouTube, he said.
With high-speed internet connections of GP, they also use communication applications Viber and WhatsApp and visit different news and music streaming sites, Sood said.
GP customers currently use around 65 terabytes of data, which was only 15 terabytes before the launch of its 3G services in October last year, he said.
The operator plans to sign in five crore internet users in the next five years in line with Telenor's global campaign of “Internet for All”.
Not many mobile operators in the world achieved as many as 5 crore subscribers, he said.
Now it has become an obligation for GP to provide the large subscriber base with quality services, he said.
In the years to come, GP will invest more than it did in the last 2-3 years, Sood said.
The operator invested Tk 1,270 crore in 2013 and Tk 929 crore in the last nine months to September to roll out 3G and boost 2G capacity and efficiency, according to its financial report.
Since its inception in 1997, the operator has so far invested over Tk 25,000 crore in Bangladesh.
In the last nine months to September, Grameenphone earned Tk 7,674 crore in revenue, according to the report.
“We aim to earn Tk 10,000 crore in revenue in 2014,” Sood said.
Among the local telecom operators, Grameenphone provides the best quality voice and data services in Bangladesh, according to an independent survey of Telenor, which is the majority shareholder of GP.
Since the launch of 3G services in Bangladesh, the telecom operators are still struggling with the high prices of handsets, which may cost above $50 apiece, he said.
He hoped the prices of such handsets to drop to $40 next year.
In September, GP and local vendor Symphony Mobile jointly launched 3G-enabled handsets operated by Firefox, each at Tk 4,650.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) plans to release 700 megahertz spectrum band through auction next year, but it did not discuss the issue with the operators yet.
Sood, further, said participation in the auction will depend on how the government designs the auction or charges for the spectrum and whether it makes sense for business.
Most of the operators in the world provide 4G services through 1,800 MHz spectrum, as mobile handsets and equipment with ability to provide such services in the spectrum are available there, he said.
If the government allows, Grameenphone can provide 4G services in the shortest possible time, as it also has 1800 MHz spectrum, which it now uses for 2G or voice services, Sood said.
“There is always hunger for more data speed; but it is very difficult for us to invest in any new technology unless we have the regulatory clarity. We have not seen the spectrum roadmap the government has.”
He said the operators want the 16-year-old telecom policy and some clauses of the Telecommunication Regulatory Act 2001 to be reviewed.
The government has never published any rules under the law, which is necessary for regulatory clarity, he said.
Comments