Skip to Content »

Wireless Federation » archive for 'GrameenPhone'

Telenor Norway may face lawsuit by Nobel Prize winner (Bangladesh)

  • September 5th, 2008
  • 5:56 am

Telenor Norway may face a lawsuit as the Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus may sue the telecom group, which, reportedly, was in a bid to gain a full control over the Grameenphone.

Grameenphone was founded by Telenor and Grameen Telecom 12 years back and was launched by Yunus and Telenor owns 62% of the Grameenphone.

Yunus has always mentioned about a deal in which Telenor has agreed on transferring it’s share in Grameenphone to the company, to which Telenor has stated the deal invalid.

“I hope that a lawsuit will prove to be unnecessary, because Telenor’s owners will demand that the company is standing by the intention which was communicated in 1996 about transferring ownership and control through Grameenphone to the poor in Bangladesh,” said Yunus.

   

Bangladesh’s major operators may lose it’s subscribers to Warid in 2008 - 2010 (Bangladesh)

  • August 26th, 2008
  • 1:46 pm

Over the last two to three years, the number of mobile subscribers in Bangladesh have been doubling on an annual basis. By end-2007, the subscriber base had reached 34 million and was continuing to grow at an annual rate of around 60%. With the momentum that has been developed on the back of the government’s deregulation process, the strong growth seemed likely to continue. The entry of new operators into the market has certainly helped to further boost the competitive environment.

The major operators are Grameenphone, Banglalink, CityCell and Teletalk.
Grameenphone, is the main player in Bangladesh’s mobile phone market with more than 20.8 million users followed by Banglalink, the No. 2 Bangladesh mobile phone carrier, with more than 10 million subscribers after rising 41 percent since January.

Notable highlights of the Bangladesh Mobile Forecast include:

  • Total subscribers in Bangladesh will increase from the projected 47.4 million in 2008 to 58 million in 2010. It is therefore, forecasted that the level of wireless penetration will increase steadily in Bangladesh from 29% in 2008 to 35% in 2010.
  • The level of competition in the wireless market will continue to increase, and the HHI index will go down to 0.296 in 2010. Major operators in the country will be losing subscribers to Warid.
  • The largest operator in the country will continue to be GrameenPhone (Telenor), but its market share (by subscribers) will decrease from 45.5% to 43.3% in the forecast period, 2008 - 2010.

   

Banglalink crosses 10 million subscriber mark (Bangladesh)

  • August 20th, 2008
  • 11:56 am

Orascom Telecom’s Banglalink, reported that it’s subscriber base has surpassed 10 million, rising at a pace of 41%.
According to the company, Banglalink, started Bangladesh operations in 2005 with 30,000 users, and has invested more than 56 billion taka ($817 million) expanding its business.
The firm’s competitors include Grameenphone, AKtel, CityCell and Teletalk.

   

Bangladesh mobile subscribers reaches the mark of 1.1mln

  • August 15th, 2008
  • 10:48 am

One of the Asia’s fastest-growing cellular market, Bangladesh, adds up a total of 1.1 million new subscribers in July, lifting the user base to 44.8 million. According to a telecom regulatar data, top operator Grameenphone, controlled by Norway’s Telenor which is gearing up for a $300 million public offer, raised its subscriber base to 20.84 million in July from 20.31 million in June. Aktel (begs third position), majority owned by Telekom Malaysia International has added 130,000 users, taking its user base to 7.98 million at end-July. Warid Telecom International of the United Arab Emirates, which launched its Bangladesh operations in May 2007 has closed july with 3.48 million users from 3.31 million. City Cell (Only CDMA carrier) a joint venture between Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Ltd and Singapore Telecommunication shows a dip in users numbers which is 1.67 million in July from 1.70 million in June.

Even the number of mobile phone users grows nearly 58 percent in 2007 to 34.4 million. This increase in number of mobile phone users is basically helped by competitive tariffs and cheap handsets said Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission. Mobile phone services are one of an important contributor to the cash-strapped nation’s economy. Several market surveys have forecasted that the number of mobile phone users will be around 70 million at the end of 2011.

Grameenphone to pay a fine of $36.5 million, for using unlicensed VoIP (Bangladesh)

  • August 14th, 2008
  • 12:52 pm

Grameenphone, Bangladesh, will pay a fine of 2.5 billion taka ($36.5 million) for enabling the use of unlicensed Voice over Internet Protocol.

International call termination to Bangladesh is a licensed service and is authorised only to the state-owned landline operator to generate and terminate international Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) calls. “We deeply regret that such unlawful practices were carried out and not disclosed earlier by Grameenphone,” said Anders Jensen, chief executive of Grameenphone.

The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), had launched a crackdown on this illegal practice after the army-backed interim government took office in January 2007.

3G mobile network trials by Ericsson (Bangladesh)

  • August 12th, 2008
  • 6:52 am

Bangladesh three mobile operators GrameenPhone, Telecom Malaysia International (Bangladesh) (AKTEL) and Warid Telecom International Bangladesh, their sites and transmission network is being used by Swedish technology provider Ericsson for conducting 3G mobile network trials in Bangladesh. According to Ericsson officials, the pilot project, which is already operational at two sites in Dhaka and at Jahangirnagar University, would be completed in October. Timetable for 3G licence has not been set yet by Bangladesh. According to local media, UMTS concession could be issued by the end of the year.

Grameenphone submits draft prospectus for IPO, hope to raise $150m (Bangladesh)

  • July 31st, 2008
  • 11:54 am

For the Initial Public offering (IPO) Bangladeshi mobile operator Grameenphone has submitted a draft prospectus to the market regulator. Director of Public Relations yed Yamin Bakht said that the company is hoping to raise around $150 million.

No details related to prospectus has been disclosed. But the sources indicates that Grameenphone plans to sell the shares at BDT 18, including a premium of BDT 17. The proceeds of the IPO will be used for the company’s network development programme.To seek approval to raise an additional $150 million, Grameenphone also submitted a plan to the SEC. Grameenphone hopes to list by the end of September this year, report says.

Grameenphone to raise IPO worth $300 million (Bangladesh)

  • July 25th, 2008
  • 12:33 pm

Grameenphone, Bangladesh’s biggest mobile operator, has approved plans for the country’s largest initial public offering. Grameenphone,62 percent owned by Telenor and 38 percent owned by local Grameen Telecom, is expected to apply to list on the country’s two main stock exchanges by the end of the month.

It plans to raise 300 million dollars through the IPO, half by floating shares on the Dhaka and Chittagong bourses and the other half by selling pre-IPO shares.

 

   

Huawei wins in Bangladesh

  • June 4th, 2008
  • 3:11 pm

GrameenPhone, the largest cellular operator in Bangladesh in terms of subscribers, has awarded a network expansion contract to Chinese equipment vendor Huawei Technologies. Though the firms did not disclose the value of the deal, a report from Reuters cites company sources who say the contract is worth in excess of USD500 million over three years. ‘The contract reflects Huawei’s leading position as a network infrastructure supplier and is expected to help GrameenPhone meet growing capacity requirements,’ the companies said in a joint statement on Wednesday. GrameenPhone claimed 17.8 million subscribers and a 47% share of the Bangladesh mobile market at the end of March 2008.

   

 

GrameenPhone’s subscribers reach 18 million, hopes for mid-year listing

  • May 2nd, 2008
  • 2:53 pm

In the first quarter of this year GrameenPhone’s GSM subscriber base grew from 16.5 million to 17.8 million, and has since passed the 18 million-mark, the Bangladeshi mobile market leader’s CEO Anders Jensen told a press conference this week. The cellco’s revenues in January-March 2008 grew to BDT14.9 billion (USD222 million) from BDT14.3 billion in the previous three months, while CAPEX of BDT5.6 billion during the first quarter took its cumulative total investments to BDT117.4 billion, including a record annual CAPEX of BDT35.8 billion last year. The investment has enabled GrameenPhone to boast the most comprehensive network coverage in the country, with more than 98% of the population under its footprint, via more than 10,600 base stations in over 6,100 locations, said Jensen. The CEO also announced that GrameenPhone may list on the domestic stock market ‘by the third quarter of this year’, pending a shareholders’ decision. GrameenPhone is owned by Telenor (62%) and Grameen Telecom (38%, itself wholly owned by Grameen Bank of Bangladesh). The company previously scheduled an IPO to float less than 10% of its shares on the Dhaka Stock Exchange by June 2008.