History
December, 2004 Projected 21, 00,000 subscribers and 62% market share
August, 2003 Became the first operator in the country to reach the million subscribers
subscribers
Grameenphone nearly doubled its subscriber base during the initial years while the growth was
much faster during the later years. It ended the inaugural year with 18,000 customers, 30,000 by
the end of 1998, 60,000 in 1999, 193,000 in 2000, 471,000 in 2001, 775,000 in 2002, 1.16
million in 2003, 2.4 million in 2004, 5.5 million in 2005, 10 million in 2006, 15 million in 2007,
20 million in 2008 and ended 2010 with 27 million customers.
Investments
Grameenphone is one of the largest private sector investors in the country with an accumulated
investment of BDT 16,000 crores up to April 2011. Grameenphone is also one of the largest
taxpayers in the country, having contributed nearly BDT 19,446 crore in direct and indirect taxes
to the Government Exchequer over the years.
Customer service
Grameenphones stated goal is to provide cost-effective and quality cellular services in
Bangladesh. The success of the company is dependent on customer satisfaction. Grameenphone
puts emphasis on that point and quickly succeeds to achieve huge popularity around the country.
From the very beginning, Grameenphone placed importance on providing good after-sales
services. In recent years, the focus has been to provide after-sales within a short distance from
where the customers live. It has a very good network throughout the country covering nearly all
62 districts.
Grameenphone service desk
There are now more than 800 GP Service Desks across the country covering nearly all upazilas
of 62 districts. The Grameenphone Centers in all the divisional cities remain open from 8am-8pm
every day including all holidays.
The Village Phone
By bringing electronic connectivity to rural Bangladesh, Grameenphone is delivering the digital
revolution to the doorsteps of the poor and unconnected. By being able to connect to urban areas
or even to foreign countries, a whole new world of opportunity is opening up for the villagers in
Bangladesh. In addition, the Village Phone Program, also started in 1997, provides a good
income-earning opportunity to more than 210,000 mostly women Village Phone operators living
in rural areas. The Village Phone Program is a unique initiative to provide universal access to
telecommunications service in remote, rural areas. Administered by Grameen Telecom
Corporation, it enables rural people who normally cannot afford to own a telephone to avail the
service while providing the VP operators an opportunity to earn a living. The Village Phone
initiative was given the GSM in the community award at the global GSM Congress held in
Cannes, France in February 2000.
This is why Grameenphone in collaboration with Grameen bank is aiming to place one phone in
each village to contribute significantly to the economic uplifts of those villages. Grameen
Phones basic strategy is coverage of both urban and rural areas. In contrast to the island strategy
followed by some companies which involves connecting isolated island of urban coverage
through transmission link. Grameen Phone builds continuous coverage cell after cell, while the
intensity of coverage may vary from area to area depending on market conditions, the basic
strategy of cell to cell coverage is applied through-out Grameenphone network.
Community Information Center (CIC)
The Grameenphone Community Information Center (CIC) is a shared premise where rural
people may access a wide-range of state of art services such as internet, voice communications,
video conferencing and other information services. The project of establishing CICs started in
February 2006 with 16 CICs. Today it has become a massive operation with over 500 operational
in nearly 450 Upazillas. Run by local entrepreneurs; the centers are equipped with PCs
connected to the Internet via the Grameenphone mobile network using EDGE technology. They
provide high speed Internet access and other information-based services in rural areas. The shortterm plan of this initiative is to establish at least one CIC in each of the 462 Upazillas. As a
result, up to 15 villages containing up to 40,000 people will be within reach of each CIC.
Grameenphone Centers
Grameenphone Centers (GPC) serves as a one stop solution for customers, with all
telecommunications products and services, under a single roof. A Grameenphone Center also
sells phones from vendors like Nokia, Samsung, Motorola and benq. EDGE/GPRS modems and
accessories such as chargers and headphones are also sold at GPCs. As of late most of the newly
opened GPCs are franchised.
More than 500 Community Information Centers- connecting life and learning
Aware-Engage-Advocacy GP employees
Sponsorship
Grameenphone engages in sponsorship to deliver its brand promise and to create mutual benefits
for its partners. Grameenphone has been relentlessly supporting different organizations through
sponsorships to preserve and glorify the national heritage and patronize the potential developing
sectors of Bangladesh. Some sponsorship activities are:
Cricket academy
Football
Golf
Tennis
Weight Lifting
Rabindro Utshob
Police week
Slogan
A connection exists between every person regardless of the distance that separates. And each
person is designed to seek out those connections, to stay in touch. Grameenphone serves as that
correlating string that connects thousands of people across the country, across the world. It
makes the daunting physicality of distance and time trivial. And thus it brings people together,
holding their dreams and hopes, joys and sorrows, helping them to stay close which is the
slogan of Grameenphone.
Vision
This means that we help our customers get the full benefit of communications services in their
daily lives by making it easy to buy and use our services, delivering on our promises, being
respectful of differences and inspiring people both inside and outside the company to reach
higher goals.
Mission statement
Grameenphone Ltd. aims at providing reliable, widespread, convenient mobile and cost effective
telephone services to the people in Bangladesh irrespective of where they live. Such services will
also help Bangladesh keep pace with other countries including those in South Africa region and
reduce the existing disparity in telecom services between urban and rural areas. Coming to
Grameenphones mission statement, it is: To be the leading telecommunication service
provider in the country with satisfied customers, shareholders and enthusiastic employees.
If we analyze this mission statement we realize that Grameenphone wants to be the market leader
in the mobile telecommunication business of Bangladesh. This implies that they also consider
BTCL as their competitor and they want to keep a win-win situation for their customer,
shareholders and employees.
The Purpose
Grameenphone Ltd. has a dual purpose to receive an economic return on its investments and to
contribute to the economic development of Bangladesh where telecommunications can play a
critical role. This is why Grameenphone, in collaboration with Grameen Bank, is aiming to place
one phone in each village to contribute significantly to the economic uplift of those villages.
The Strategy
The basic strategy of Grameenphone Ltd. is for the overall coverage of both urban and rural
areas. It continues coverage, cell after cell, with an intention to bring the whole country under its
network. Though the priority of the intensity of coverage varies from area to area, the basic
strategy of cell-to-cell coverage is applied through the whole country. Presently it has network
coverage in 62 districts around the country including all six divisional headquarters, with 10,000
base stations in operation.
The People
The young, dedicated and energetic employees have made the enormous growth of
Grameenphone possible. All the employees know in their hearts that Grameenphone is more than
a phone. This genuine sense of purpose gives them the dedication and the determination of
producing the biggest coverage and the highest subscriber base in the country. The talents and
the energy of its people are among the keys of both of its core and distinctive competencies.
Grameenphone knows it well and treats its employees accordingly.
Base stations
Any cellular operator has an Operation and Maintenance department which is responsible for
making cellular network available for 24 hours. Grameenphone has built the largest cellular
network in the country with over 10,000 base stations in more than 5,700 locations. To face the
huge competition at telecom industry by rival other 5 mobile operators Grameenphone may have
to increase her base stations to comply with consumers needs. To keep the status of the current
market leader in future, Grameenphone has to keep her service standard to the customer
satisfaction level. To meet that the quality of new on air base station has to be top class.
Network
Grameenphone built a healthy and robust infrastructure in terms of telecommunication network
which is expanded at a record pace every year as well. The Radio in terms of coverage and
capacity, Transmission and Switching network in terms of number of base station, connecting
transmission line, switching system (MSC) and so on.
Switching Network
The switching capacity has been strengthened with 27 Mobile switching centers 42 Base Station
Controller and other equipments added to in 08 divisional cities. Grameenphone is also offering a
different type of services to the valued subscribers continuously by deploying different service
equipment SMSC, VMSC, EDGE and so on.
Transmission Network
Bangladesh is located at the Ganges delta basin so the landscape of Bangladesh is dominated by
the rivers and channel. Therefore an important part of the infrastructure is based on radio
resources (Microwave Links) owned by Grameenphone. Grameenphone built a strong
infrastructure by taking lease dark fibers from the Bangladesh Railway around 2000 km. The
second tier backbone covers approximate 1200 km of new fiber optic cable was laid apart from
leased optical fiber from Bangladesh Railway to enhance the capacity and to ensure higher
redundancy in transmission end.
Radio Network
It has built the largest network with the widest coverage. Presently, nearly 100% percent of
population has now been brought under the coverage of the GP network, which covers more than
450 Upazilas of 62 districts. Almost 10,000 base stations are operating around the country.
The Result
By bringing electronic connectivity to rural Bangladesh, Grameenphone is delivering the digital
revolution to the doorsteps of the poor and unconnected. By being able to connect to urban areas
or even to foreign countries, a whole new world of opportunity is opening up for the villagers in
Bangladesh. Grameen Bank borrowers who provide the services are uplifting their services
economically through a new means of income generation while at the same time providing
valuable phone services to their fellow villagers. The telephone is a weapon against poverty. The
subscriber base of GP continues to grow at a healthy pace.
Awards and recognition:
Best Joint Venture Enterprise of the Year award at Bangladesh Business Awards in
2002
Best use of Mobile for Social and Economic Development category in 3GSMA
Global Mobile Award,2006
Best use of Mobile for Social and Economic Development category in 3GSMA
Global Mobile Award,2007
First Telecom Asia Awards 2008 Asian Telecom Innovation of the Year
Best use of Mobile for Social and Economic Development category in 3GSMA
Global Mobile Award,2008
Base Stations-10,000
Roaming Partners- 118 Countries.
Conclusion
Grameenphone believes in services, a service that leads to good business and good
developments. Telephony helps people work together raising their productivity. This gain in
productivity is development, which in turn enables them to afford a telephone service; generating
a good business thus development and business go together.
grameenphone :
at a glance
Type
Limited
Industry
Mobile Telecommunication
Founded
1997
Headquarters
Key people
Products
Revenue
891Million USD
Net income
Parent
Website
www.grameenphone.com