Telecommunications in Bangladesh The liberalization of Bangladesh’s telecommunications sector began with small steps in 1989 with the issuance of a license to a private operator for the provision of inter alia cellular mobile services to compete with the previous monopoly provider of telecommunications services the Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB). Significant changes in the number of fixed and mobile services deployed in Bangladesh occurred in the late 1990s and the number of services in operation have subsequently grown exponentially in the past five years. The incentives both from government and public sectors have helped to grow this sector.It is now one of the biggest sector of Bangladesh. As a populous country, it's huge market has attracted many foreign investors to invest in this sector The telecom sector in Bangladesh is rapidly emerging. Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) is the regulatory authority for this sector, overseeing licensing, policy etc. Calling Code: +880 – SubCodes Telecommunication Sector of Bangladesh: At a Glance There is many ups and down in the mobile phone industry in Bangladesh. At present there are six mobile operators in our country. According to the number of subscribes and profitability Grameen phone Ltd is in the top position among six operators. Except teletalk though their local names are Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi, Airtel, Citycell but their main companies are the world’s famous and big organization. They have invested a lot and also they have more plans for investment. There is no doubt that their key objective is to earn profit. Government should create an environment and principles for profit. Besides these government should preserve consumer’s right. At present there are six mobile operators in our country. According to the number of subscribes and profitability Grameen phone Ltd is in the top position among six operators. Except teletalk though their local names are Grameenphone, Banglalink, Aktel, Warid, Citycell but their main companies are the world’s famous and big organization. They have invested a lot and also they have more plans for investment. There is no doubt that their key objective is to earn profit. Government should create an environment and principles for profit. Besides these government should preserve consumer’s right. History of Telecommunication Landmarks in the history of telecom industry in Bangladesh • 1853: Telegraph branch under Posts and Telegraph Department, British India. • 1971: Reconstructed as Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Department under Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. • 1975: Reconstructed as Telegraph and Telephone Board. • 1979: Reconstructed as Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) with right to issue license for telecom and wireless services. • 1981: Digital Telex Exchange in Bangladesh. • 1983: Automatic Digital IT started in Dhaka. • 1985 : Coin box Telephone service introduced in Bangladesh by BTTB. • 1989 : GENTEX Telegraph messaging service introduced in Bangladesh. • 1989 : Bangladesh Rural Telecom Authority got license to operate exchanges in 200 upazilla. • 1989 : Sheba Telecom got license to operate exchange is 199 upazilla. • 1989 : Cellular mobile phone company Pacific Bangladesh Telephone Limited and Bangladesh Telecom got license. • 1995 : Card Telephone service introduced in Bangladesh by BTTB and TSS. • 1995 : Regulatory power of BTTB transferred to Ministry (MoPT). • 1995 : 2nd and 3rd ITX installed in Dhaka. • 1996 : GrameenPhone got cellular mobile Telephone license. • 1996 : Telecom Malaysia International Bangladesh got cellular mobile license. • 1998 : Telecom Policy. • 2000 : Global Telecom Service (GTS) Telex Exchange venture with British Teleco. • 2001 : Telecommunication Act, to establish Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC). • 2002 : ICT Policy. • 2004 : Teletalk cellular mobile launched. • 2005 : Egypt-based Orascom acquired Sheba Telecom • 2006 : NGN[disambiguation needed] introduced in BTTB. • 2008 : BTTB converted into Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL) with 100% shares owned by Government. The Submarine Cable Project transformed into Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL) • 2008 : Japanese NTT DoCoMo bought 30 percent stake in Aktel • 2009 : Bharti Airtel acquired 70 percent stake in Warid Telecom • 2009 : Internet Protocol Telephony Service Provider (IPTSP) Operators launched. • 2012 : 3G mobile service is introduced by state owned Teletalk in October. [2] [3] Structure of Telecommunication As defined in the National Telecommunications Policy 1998 and International Long Distance Telecommunications Services (ILDTS) Policy 2007, all mobile operators is to interconnect through Interconnection Exchange (ICX) and all international calls to be handled by International Gateway (IGW) which is to be connected to the mobile and fixed operators through the ICXs. The Interconnection Exchange (ICX) will receive all calls from the mobile and fixed operators whenever the call is made to other network and will pass it to the destination network if the call is local, and will pass to the IGWs if the call is international. ICX will also deliver calls received from IGWs where the call is destined.[4] Below illustrate the structure of interconnection between different interfaces Mobile phone operators in Bangladesh There are 6 mobile phone operators in Bangladesh. These are: 1. Grameenphone Ltd.: Branded as Grameenphone 2. Orascom Telecom Ltd.: Branded as Banglalink 3. Robi Axiata Ltd: Branded as Robi 4. Pacific Bangladesh Telephone Ltd.: Branded as Citycell 5. Teletalk Bangladesh Ltd.: Branded as Teletalk 6. Airtel Bangla Ltd. Branded as airtel Mobile Phone user in Bangladesh The mobile base in Bangladesh grew to 98.47 million in September from 95.53 million in August. Grameenphone led the market with 40.95 million customers, versus 39.80 million a month earlier, followed by Banglalink with 26.78 million subscribers, up from 25.74 million in August, according to figures from the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC). Robi Axiata grew its subscriber base to 20.80 million from 20.14 million and Airtel Bangladesh ended September with 6.89 million customers, compared with 6.78 million a month earlier. However, Citycell's subscriber base was flat at 1.68 million while Teletalk ended the month with 1.37 million customers, same as a month earlier. Mobile phone user in Bangladesh - 98,470,000 - July 2012 2.1 Market Share Analysis of Telecom in Bangladesh: At present the total number of Mobile Phone Active Subscribers has reached 72.959 million at the end of March 2011. Among the operators at the end of March 2011, Grameen phone grab the highest subscriber with 31.982 Banglalink is in the second positions with the total subscriber base of 20.126million and then Robi with 13.259million subscribers stands as the third largest mobile phone operator in Bangladesh .Airtel, Citycell, and Teletalk possess 4th, 5th and 6th position respectively. (Airtel Bangladesh had 4.607million subscribers, Citycell's total mobile subscriber base is 1.787million, TeleTalk is the 6th largest mobile phone operator in Bangladesh with 1.198million subscribers. Problems and Prospects of Telecom Sector of Bangladesh: Actually problems and prospects of any business sector is related to its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (SWOT) and also political, economical, socio-cultural and technological (PEST) issues of any country as well as the organization. Though telecommunication sector of our country face a lots of problems, it’s also a prospective field till now. 3.1 Problems of Telecom Sector of Bangladesh: a) High Competition: High competition in mobile or telecom sector in our country is one of the main problems. If we have a look in the primary stage of our telecom sector, we had only city cell and Grameen phone and they were operating their business in own way. They took the first mover advantages but when Banglalink, Robi, Teletalk, Airtel come to compete in the market then the market became more competitive and still there exist a high competition in this sector. So to face this competition/ challenge some of the operators are thinking to merge their business to survive in the market b) Poor Economic Background: As a least developed or developing country Bangladesh has a poor economic background where a major portion of our people are living under the poverty line. So it is difficult to operate such type of business in Bangladesh with making a remarkable profit. By considering this economic background, the telecom sector is to fixed the call rate, should reduce tax on SIM and sacrifice more to operate their business. c) Instable Political Situation: Our previous history tells that Bangladesh is not a politically stable country. Different types of political violence, pressure of army, corruption and many more problems make our country instable and also has made this sector insecure. If we have a look last few year our democracy had face many ups and downs, as we don’t have any foreign direct investment (FDI) in any of the sector. d) High Rate of Corporate Tax: As the economic condition is not good of Bangladesh, the telecommunication sector is not able to make profit. Moreover they are to pay high corporate tax which is 40%-45%. It is another major problem or challenge to operate challenging day by day e) SIM Tax: In Bangladesh the mobile operator is to pay Tk. 800-1200 as tax in each SIM from fiscal year 2005-06. Firstly it was Tk 1200 and later on by considering different facts it is fixed as tk 800. Though tax is to paid by the subscribers directly but the company give incentive to continue the sell the SIM at a lower price in the competitive market to hold their position. But now it become impossible for their all the company to carry on this burden. As the growth rate of the subscriber has been declined, the companies are in challenging position. f) Import Tax: In case of technological perspective, Bangladesh is not good enough. So mobile phone operators is to transfer or import technologies, handsets and other equipment related to the telecommunication and for this they are to pay 35% import tax on it.