Telenor, GP look to create local contents for growth

Rolv-Erik Spilling

Telenor Digital and Grameenphone are looking to create appropriate local contents to spur digital growth in the country and also their own, a top official said yesterday.

“In Bangladesh, what we are lacking is an understanding of the opportunities that are available,” Rolv-Erik Spilling, chief executive officer of Telenor Digital, a subsidiary of Telenor Group, told The Daily Star in an interview in Dhaka. 

Telenor Digital and GP would facilitate innovation in the country, he said, adding that it can be start-ups or a single person making applications.

As the home of the Norwegian telecommunication giant's high-tech development house, Telenor Digital creates globally scalable solutions within the next-generation communication services, cloud computing, e-commerce and the Internet of Things.

The company also enables global distribution of its own as well as third-party services and support new ventures within digital entrepreneurship.

Spilling said GP is doing fantastic work in Bangladesh and Telenor Digital wants to take it forward.

“That is why the initiative with Firefox is important for us. It is open -- it is the right way to go, at least for us.”

GP in association with local handset maker Symphony introduced a smartphone running Mozilla's Firefox operating system on Tuesday. The Norwegian was in the country to launch the smartphone, which is priced at Tk 4,650.

He tipped the price of smartphones to drop in the country, as early as next year, as their sales volume is increasing sharply.

The core of GP's “Internet for All” initiative is to give users affordable phones and make products and services relevant for them, he said.

Spilling, who spent the past 20 years working with some of the industry's most important players which includes Alcatel, said Telenor Digital plans to venture into messaging services like WhatsApp, an instant messaging subscription service for smartphones and selected feature phones.

The messaging service would allow users to reach others regardless of whether the receivers have the application installed on their phones or not.

Spilling said the problem with the existing mobile messaging services is that one cannot reach those who do not have the application installed on their phones.

Telenor Digital also has its eyes on mobile financial services, which it has already introduced in Pakistan and Norway.

“Financial service is one of those areas that we are considering. We have a very good platform in Bangladesh and we will see if it is possible to launch it here.”

However, it looks unlikely in Bangladesh at present, as the country follows a banking sector-led mobile financial services model and a number of banks have already rolled out the services.

About Bangladesh's digital market, he said mobile internet penetration is still very low and the country cannot be termed a mature digital market.

“But emerging markets grow much, much faster. If we can make the phones more affordable and maybe combine it with more valuable local services, then this will really take off.”

He envisages a bright future for Bangladesh when it comes to digitalisation as majority of the population will be connected to internet within the next one decade.

“From music and videos, everything will be streamed in the coming years. User-generated contents will be very, very important.”

As mobile internet penetration grows, users will also do their financial transactions through the phone, even though emerging markets such Bangladesh have a cash-oriented approach.

“We believe that when we get that penetration on mobile internet, we can play a role in that journey.”

Telenor plans to walk the road of Google in order to become global in the true sense.

“Telenor is very local, but we have the capabilities to become global in a sense that we can take good ideas and make it into global solutions.”

He said with GP, Telenor is exploring new areas where it can make investment.

Telenor Digital has already developed some services, many of which are relevant for GP subscribers and will be launched by next year.

He also added that GP should be able to work with any global partner if it wants to bring value to its subscribers.

Telenor Digital also plans to launch a competition among start-up companies in Bangladesh and provide them the platform to take part in international competition and grow further.

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