GP teams up with post office

Grameenphone yesterday sealed a deal with the postal department to boost its revenue by going deeper in rural areas through the postmen working in about 8,300 postal branches.
Under the agreement, the largest cell phone operator will provide 24,000 SIM cards, having the benefit of Flexiload and public phone, for the postmen enabling them offer recharge, local and overseas calling services to the people in remote areas.
The new service will come into effect from November.
GP and Bangladesh Post Office (BPO) said the deal would supplement the income of low-paid runners, as they will enjoy the difference after paying about Tk 1 as charge for every minute of call if the rate is Tk 2.
The commission for recharge will be determined time to time on the basis of market rate. At present, GP offers about 2.75 percent commission to the Flexiload service providers.
While the BPO will get 5 percent of the revenue generated through the process, according to officials.
“We believe this public and private partnership will usher in another dimension to the services in rural areas,” GP Chief Executive Officer Anders Jensen said after signing the agreement with the BPO at The Westin, Dhaka.
The other signatory was BPO Director General Mobasherur Rahman. The BPO had earlier also inked a number of deals with some local and foreign banks to deliver remittances.
Chief Adviser's Special Assistant Brig Gen MA Malek (retd), Posts and Telecommunications Secretary Iqbal Mahmud and GP Director for Public Relations Syed Yamin Bakht were present among others at the programme.
The cell phone operator, which enjoys the highest number of subscribers at about 21 million till August, has over 70 percent users in cities and district towns.
“The BPO would consider transferring money by mobile phone in future,”said Brig Gen MA Malek at the signing ceremony.
At present, the BPO has about 40,000 employees, majority of which are postmen. Of them, runners providing services in the rural areas receive an honorarium of about Tk 750 a month.