Bangladesh’s chance to prove it has gone digital: Robi CEO

People who even a few months ago had little interest in digital services are now increasingly availing those for movements being limited to their homes, said Mahtab Uddin Ahmed, managing director and chief executive officer of Robi.

Coming on Facebook live on Saturday evening to exchange views with customers, he said this was Bangladesh's chance to prove to the world that it had gone digital and it should not let this opportunity go by.

He said definitely Covid-19 has badly affected the country's overall economy as well as that of the world but the pandemic had also brought some positive impacts.

"Online activity has increased as people are trying to avail the services from online platforms which is a positive side of the coronavirus situation amid all the negative impacts of the epidemic," said Ahmed, also the president of the Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (AMTOB).

Facebook streaming and use of YouTube has also increased tremendously in the country and people are also working from their homes, which also helped bring a surge to data usage growth, said Ahmed.

"But most importantly people who were not interested in using digital services in other times are also now trying to access online banking, pay their bills through online platforms and also use the mobile financial services to run their regular activities smoothly."

People are conducting meetings online and students attending online classes while entertainment is also onboard through the internet, he said.

Ahmed said e-commerce should have taken this opportunity to have grown in the country but maybe their supply chain has broken down and that was why they cannot take this opportunity.

He said the increase in online activity has prompted them to drastically reduce data prices and redesign their packages keeping in mind that people are stuck at home and dependent on mobile data for entertainment and students' educational activities.

"Alongside Robi, other operators too have reduced data prices but this in turn also causes revenue losses for the mobile carriers," Ahmed added.