Teletalk to go for a brand overhaul
State-owned mobile operator Teletalk is moving towards a major brand overhaul by February 2016 -- with a new logo, website, packages and a modern complaints system -- to make the brand attractive to users.
Private mobile operators spend large amounts of money on branding, but Teletalk has never done so, said Tarana Halim, state minister for telecom.
"A lack of a brand image is a major weakness of Teletalk, and we must rectify it."
Tarana yesterday chose one of the two new logos presented to her by Teletalk officials at a meeting at her office. The logo will now be sent to the prime minister's ICT adviser for evaluation, and then the Teletalk's board will finally approve it.
Along with brand refurbishment, Teletalk is also working on setting up 1,000 new base stations across the country, said officials who were present at the meeting.
The operator currently has 3,750 base stations, of which only 1,562 are 3G sites. Teletalk has covered 476 upazilas with the 2G technology but their 3G coverage is available at only 91 upazilas till date.
The operator is now focused on expanding 3G coverage to all upazilas and highways.
"Teletalk's network coverage will improve if we can increase the number of base stations, and we can also get more subscribers then," Tarana said.
Teletalk wants to use post offices in remote areas and "union digital centres" to set up base stations and has sought the state minister's support for that.
As of September, the operator has 42 lakh active connections and is working to increase the number of active users to one crore by December 2016, according to a plan of the operator.
Senior officials said raising investment is their main challenge though the operator received permission to offer 3G services 18 months before other operators did.
Compared to the market leader, Teletalk's investment is very small -- only Tk 3,000 crore, they said.
Teletalk started its journey as the country's fifth operator in March 2005 with a capital of only Tk 643 crore. Initially it had the capacity to serve only 40 lakh users. The number has now been expanded to one crore.
The operator's revenue reached Tk 969 crore in 2014-15, from Tk 753.69 crore in 2013-14, when its net loss was Tk 20.86 crore.
Teletalk is also considering a fourth generation mobile network project, of Tk 4,600 crore, which is currently being evaluated by the Planning Commission.
Under the project, the operator will establish 25,000 Wi-Fi hotspots across the country, and the project's tenure is supposed to be between 2016 and 2019, officials said.
However, Tarana said they will look for new investments from outside the company before moving to a 4G project.
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