Assignment on Banglalink

Introduction: There are currently six (6) mobile operators companies in Bangladesh. Banglalink is one of them. It is the second largest cellular service provider in Bangladesh after Grameenphone. As of November, 2009, Banglalink has a subscriber base of 12.99 million. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Orascom Telecom.Banglalink had 1.03 million connections until December, 2005. The number of Banglalink users increased by 257 per cent and stood at 3.64 million at the end of 2006, making it the fastest growing operator in the world of that year. In August, 2006, Banglalink became the first company to provide free incoming calls from BTTB for both postpaid and prepaid connections. On August 20, 2008, Banglalink got past the landmark of 10 million subscriber base. Banglalink entered start the market with a promise of making mobile phone affordable for people. There are large populations in Bangladesh. When banglalink didn’t enter to purpose in business of Bangladesh very few people used mobile phone for communication. So, banglalink tried to connect large number of population. Which were outside the attach of communication. Banglalink succeed to perform its purpose. Banglalink was the first operator to introduce a flat rate for all call and thus such way, banglalink has helped middle, lower- middle and lower class people.

Background of Banglalink: Sheba Telecom (Pvt.) Ltd. was granted license in 1989 to operate in the rural areas of 199 upazilas. Later it obtained GSM license in 1996 to extend its business to cellular mobile, radio telephone services. It launched operation in the last quarter of 1997 as a Bangladesh-Malaysia joint venture. In July, 2004, it was reported that Egypt based Orascom Telecom is set to purchase the Malaysian stakes in Sheba Telecom through a hush-hush deal, as Sheba had failed to tap the business potentials in Bangladesh mainly due to a chronic feud between its Malaysian and Bangladeshi partners. An agreement was reached with Orascom worth US$25 million was finalized in secret. The pact has been kept secret for legal reasons, considering financial fallout and because of the feud. The main reason for the undercover dealing was the joint venture agreement between the Bangladeshi and the Malaysian partners, which dictates that if any party sells its Sheba shares, the other party will enjoy the first right to buy that. 1

Integrated Services Ltd. (ISL), the Bangladeshi partner, was being ‘officially’ shown as purchasing the shares held by Technology Resources Industries (TRI) of Malaysia for $15 million. ISL then paid another $10 million to Standard Chartered Bank to settle Sheba's liabilities. In September, 2004, Orascom Telecom Holdings purchased 100% of the shares of Sheba Telecom (Pvt.) Limited (“Sheba”). It was acquired for US$60 million. Sheba had a base of 59,000 users, of whom 49,000 were regular when it was sold. Afterward it was re-branded and launched its services under the “Banglalink” brand on February 10, 2005. Banglalink’s license is a nationwide 15-year GSM license and will expire in November, 2011. In March, 2008, Sheba Telecom (Pvt.) Limited changed its name as Orascom Telecom Bangladesh Limited, matching its parent company name.

Nature Type and Size: Nature of operation: Banglalink GSM Ltd. provides mobile telephony services in Bangladesh. It offers prepaid and post-paid mobile connection services. The company also provides various value-added services, such as call forwarding/divert, call waiting/call holding, call barring, caller line identification presentation, voice mail, short messaging, ring tone and logo downloads, conference call, picture messages, and instant recharge. The company was founded in 1998 and is based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Banglalink GSM Ltd. operates as a subsidiary of Orascom Telecom Holding S.A.E. Banglalink GSM Ltd. was formerly known as Sheba Telecom Pvt. Ltd. As a result of acquisition of Sheba Telecom Pvt. Ltd. by Orascom Telecom. Banglalink continued to invest heavily in network enhancement throughout 2008, totaling about Tk 3,000 crore, the highest in the industry during the year and bringing up the total investment till date to over Tk 7,000 crore. Banglalink also strengthened the value proposition to its customers, by addressing one of the key core strengths - its customer care service, regarded in many aspects to be the best in the mobile industry of Bangladesh.

Type: Banglalink is a subsidiary private limited monopoly telecommunication company. Its status is operating. Banglalink Telecom sector of Bangladesh has been flourished since the last decade as many national and multi-national operators entered into the industry. To have a brief idea on the existing telecom industry of Bangladesh, some relevant information of the telecom companies have been compiled here. Wholly 2

owned subsidiary of Egyptian Orascom Telecom. In September 2004 Orascom Telecom Holdings purchased 100% of the shares of Sheba Telecom (Pvt.) Limited (“Sheba”). Banglalink’s license is a nationwide 15-year GSM license that expires in November 2011. When Banglalink entered the Bangladesh telecom industry in February 2005, the scenario changed overnight with mobile telephony becoming an extremely useful and affordable communication tool for people across all segments. Within one year of operation, Banglalink became the fastest growing mobile operator of the country with a growth rate of 257%. This milestone was achieved with innovative and attractive products and services targeting the different market segments; aggressive improvement of network quality and dedicated customer care; and effective communication that emotionally connected customers with Banglalink.

Banglalink is today the 2nd largest mobile operator in the country and recently celebrated with 1 crore customers. This has been achieved in just three and a half years.

Size: Human resources: Banglalink has over 5000 employees. Ahmed abu doma is CEO and MD of Banglalink. Shibly Zaman- Head of Market Development Sharifur Rahman- Optimization Engineer Saydujjaman, PMP- Billing Asst. Manager (IT) Kazi Imroze Sakib- Core Network Optimization Engineer Madhubanti kabir- HR Senior Manager New Hires and Recent Promotions at Banglalink Mohammad Rukunuzzaman- NSS Assistant Manager was NSS Senior Engineer, NSS O&M.3 months ago Tyseer Amin-Organizational Development Senior Executive was Organizational Development Executive. Executive 10%, Engineer 8%, Zonal Sales Manager 5%, Senior Engineer 5%.

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Human resources involved: Banglalink GSM Ltd. appointed Ahmed Mohamed Fady as new Chief Technical Officer (CTO). Mr. Fady has over 12 years of professional experience, with 10 years experience in GSM technology in Orascom Telecom. He was appointed as the head of the Operation and Maintenance department following the launch of Orascom Telecom Bangladesh. He has recently been promoted to Chief Technical Officer of Orascom Telecom Bangladesh Technical Department. ORASCOM TELECOM is one of the most dynamic telecommunications powerhouses in the world. Orascom is based in Egypt and has operations in 7 countries worldwide. Established in 1998, it is today the largest capitalized company on the Cairo & Alexandria Stock Exchanges with over 79 million subscribers worldwide. It has grown to be one of the largest and most diversified GSM network operator in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. In Bangladesh the headquarters of banglalink is in Gulshan model town Dhaka. Its area served in 64 districts. In every district banglalink has customer care center.

Network coverage:

Banglalink focused heavily on enhancing service and quality during 2006.

These enhancements were done in terms of network quality and customer service. There was aggressive improvement of indoor coverage, and wherever necessary, especially in-building solutions were installed in case of enterprise customers and corporate clients. Banglalink's network is covering 486 Thanes reasonably and 61 districts, covering a total population of around 90%.

Revenue: Banglalink revenue up by 29pc Mobile phone operator banglalink earned revenues of Tk. 1,183 crore at the end of first half 2009, which is an increase of 29 per cent compared to the same time last year. Its subscriber base increased steadily and reached 11.04 million at the end of June, which is a 17 per cent increase compared to the same time last year. 4

The market share of banglalink also went up to 23.7 per cent in the first half of 2009, as compared to 21.6 per cent during the same time last year, a news release said. Orascom Telecom Holding, the holding company of Banglalink, has recently announced its financial results for the first half of 2009. In the first half of 2009, due to a withdrawal of SIM tax subsidy by the major operators, the overall industry continued to experience a slowdown as connection prices were increased, it said. The ARPU has also reported an increase of 18 per cent in the second quarter compared to the same time last year and an increase of 4 per cent compared to the previous quarter. Orascom Telecom chairman Naguib Sawiris said, Banglalink continues to grow very well with strong subscriber take up and stable ARPU; it is now stably EBITDA positive and has reached an impressive 40 per cent plus margin in. During the first half of 2009, banglalink succeeded to achieve an EBITDA of Tk417 crore as a result of a decrease in customer acquisition costs and an increase in revenue.

In the first half of 2009, banglalink CAPEX investment was Tk. 347 crore million which brings the total investment till date to Tk.7,397 crore.

Marketing policies: Products and Services: Banglalink entered the market with a promise of making mobile phone affordable for people. This promise was kept and banglalink was the first operator to introduce a flat rate for all calls (inside own network and to other operators) for the convenience and ease of customers. Thus "desh" was launched the best prepaid package for making calls to any network. In addition, a new prepaid package, banglalink desh "rang" has also been launched. This package offers attractive tariff plan for customers who need to talk within the banglalink network. Banglalink desh is already a very popular and well-liked brand - banglalink desh rong is a brand extension to enrich the brand.

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Targeting the corporate and SME segments, banglalink has launched "banglalink enterprise" with state of the art services including GPRS, corporate SMS broadcast, dedicated customer relationship management, and customized packages. Banglalink enterprise offers customized telecom solutions for different businesses as per their requirements and the objective of banglalink enterprise is to assist the clients at every step as their businesses grow. Banglalink also offers extensive range of value added services for customers. Banglalink has been the first operator to launch Missed Call Alerts, Music Station, SME portal, Song dedication, voice adda and various other services for customers. Banglalink continues to offer products and services approaching different consumer segments with distinct communication needs. Banglalink focuses heavily on enhancing service quality as well. Enhancements were done in terms of network quality and customer service. There was aggressive improvement of indoor coverage, and wherever necessary, especially in-building solutions were installed in case of enterprise customers and corporate clients. We have also established a nationwide fiber optic network of 1900 km with the longest submarine cable which lies under the great Padma river. To provide better customer service, a new, expanded, state of the art call center has also been established. We also have nationwide banglalink points and banglalink service points. In addition, Banglalink has dedicated a team to manage high-end customer accounts and with over 700 customer care points including 7 customer sales and care centers

Products Offered: Prepaid Packages Banglalink currently offers two prepaid plans. All the prepaid plans come in two phases—Standard (T&T incoming and outgoing with NWD and ISD) and M2M. All connections provide GPRS to subscribers. •

Desh, with the slogan Ek desh Ek Rate! (means one country one rate!), is one of the cheapest prepaid plans in the country by tariff. Users of desh can call any mobile operator at 0.45 taka (excluding VAT) during 12 AM to 5 PM. It also has three FnF numbers. desh was launched on September 14, 2006. 6

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Desh rang is launched as a brand extension to enrich the brand of desh. Rang is a Bengali word which means color. It is introduced with the catch phrase—Rangiye Din Apnar Jeebon (means color your life.). This package is beneficial for customers who mainly make calls to their own network and are heavy SMS users. It offers four on-net FnF numbers, but no off-net FnF number.

Former Packages •

Regular prepaid was the first package Banglalink had to offer. It is currently unavailable in the market.

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Ladies, first!, with the slogan Shomporker Network (means network of relationships), was tailored for women. It was launched on September 3, 2005. It had introduced 1 second pulse for the first time in the prepaid market. It offered four FnF numbers. It is currently unavailable in the market.

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Be linked! Was launched on November 16, 2005. It was later taken over by desh package as all the be linked! Customers were automatically migrated to desh.

Postpaid Packages Currently there are three postpaid plans from Banglalink for its retail customers. These packages are known as enterprise personal, which is a subset of much larger Banglalink enterprise. All packages come with T&T local, NWD, ISD and e-ISD connectivity. • • •

personal package 1 personal supplementary personal call and control 7

Former Packages •

Upper class, a postpaid platform, was launched on July 31, 2005. It was mainly targeting slightly upscale consumers. upper class was known for offering purple carpet treatment to its clients, giving special attention with separate counters at sales and customer care centers and a dedicated hotline. It had numerous packages under two different tariff plans—tailor made and made to measure. In addition to those, it introduced a hybrid product named call and control designed to offer the value of postpaid with the control of prepaid. Later enterprise personal took control of upper class.

Banglalink enterprise: Banglalink enterprise offers a wide range of products and services to suit the needs of the business community. Companies under the enterprise package are provided with a dedicated enterprise relationship manager who provides them with personalized customer care round the clock. Other benefits of enterprise include customized packages with attractive call charges and connection price, enterprise SMS broadcast, enterprise short code, international roaming, missed call alerts, free voice mail retrieval, fax and data service, call conferencing, special offer for family members and many more. It was first launched in December, 2006. The current packages are: • • •

enterprise corporate; targeted at the corporate segment enterprise SME; targeted at the SME segment enterprise personal

Prior to the launch of Banglalink enterprise, Banglalink served the business clientele through a similar platform named Banglalink professional.

Customer service: Banglalink delivers customer service using its call centers and customer care networks. Currently Banglalink provides customer care services to its clients through: • Banglalink sales & care centres • Banglalink points 8

Banglalink set the benchmark in customer care with our state-of-the-art call center, largest customer care network, and a passionate & vigilant team serving you every single moment. Banglalink care line offers a dedicated 24 / 7 service to answer all your queries. 24 hours a day. 7 days a week. Any queries you may have about:  Subscribing for a new connection  Any form of account information  Coverage details  Product information  Value added services  Billing information

Technology Concept of GMS and CDMA technology: • CDMA: stands for Code Division Multiple Access. Both data and voice are separated from signals using codes and then transmited using a wide frequency range. Because of this, there are more space left for data transfer (this was one of the reasons why CDMA is the prefered technology for the 3G generation, which is broadband access and the use of big multimedia messages). 14% of the worldwide market goes to CDMA. For the 3G generation CDMA uses 1x EV-DO and EV-DV. It has a lot of users in Asia, specially in South Korea. • GSM: stands for Global System Mobile. Even though it is sold as "the latest technology" in several countries, this technology is older than CDMA (and also TDMA). But keep in mind that this doesn't mean that GSM is inferior or worse than CDMA. Roaming readiness and fraud prevention are two major advantages from this technology. GSM is the most used cell phone technology in the world, with 73% of the worldwide market. It has a very strong presence in Europe.

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Banglalink is a GSM based mobile operator company in Bangladesh. There are currently six (6) mobile operators in Bangladesh. Among them GrameenPhone, AKTEL, Warid and Teletalk are the GSM operator like Banglalink. Whereas CityCell is the only one CDMA operator in Bangladesh. So far GSM is more popular than CDMA here.

Future plan Vision: Banglalink aims to understand peoples' needs best and develop appropriate communication services to improve peoples' life and make it simple. All our work is aimed towards meeting our vision. All members of the banglalink family are highly passionate individuals, fully committed to achieving the vision that we have set ourselves. Our customers' needs matter most to usmaking their life simple and improving it is all we want. To ensure our vision is achieved, we have set ourselves a few values, we want to be: Straight Forward, Reliable, Innovative, Passionate. All the banglalink family members have one thing in common- a passion to serve. We want to go that extra mile, so that you can have the best possible service. Investing in the future of Bangladesh.

Mission: Banglalink will invest taka 7.5 billion in network expansion this year, as it has started drawing down from proceeds of the countries biggest corporate bond, the company said Saturday. The countries second largest mobile telephony firm. Owned by Egypts Orascom Telecom, last month sold bonds equivalent to US S 102 million at 13.5 per cent m, payable after every six months and due in 2014, dwarfing Grameenphones S 71 million in the initial public offering. 10

Bangladesh telecom market, Banglalink officials said the company would go ahead with the investment, although alarmed at Indian Bharti Telecoms entry to the and its total capital would rich more than TK 50 billion by 2014. The market is going to be tough no doubt. But we want to thrive in the competition,” a senior company official involved in the planning said. “We have issued the bond for network equipment purchase and expansion into rural areas. So that’s very much on track.” he

Problems faced by banglalink: Though almost everything is going smoothly for banglink, gradually it faced some problems. Its main problems are interrupted network. There are also has so many problems that faced the firm’s these aremanaging the firm, acquiring capital, distribution of the products, political or social problem etc.

Managing: There are so many problems that faces baglalink telecommunication firm. Managing the all the thing is very difficult. There are many things included in managing. These are all technical system, bill payment, providing a complete mobile solution, taxes etc. To manage these things there has some problem like economic, political problem etc. As with other incumbent telecommunications service providers, the company has faced an increase in significant challenges within its core fixed-line voice business. Deregulation has resulted in more competition, and competing technologies such as Voice over IP (VoIP) and mobile voice are eroding the overall market for traditional fixed-line voice services. As a result, the company has sought to diversify its portfolio into areas where it can generate growth and has a sustainable competitive advantage. One of these key areas for expansion is Information and Communications Technology (ICT), which entails providing managed services to enterprise customers, including managing enterprise IT infrastructure. The company’s competitive advantage in this area is its 11

ability to manage mission-critical network and IT infrastructure, as demonstrated by its own network, which has delivered 99.999 percent reliability and has never experienced an outage. The company also has strong existing relationships with most of top enterprises throughout its existing core business. Although the company had been delivering ICT services to large enterprises since 2001, these were custom services that were costly for both the company and its customers. In 2006, with its existing enterprise customers demanding lower prices and smaller mid-market companies looking to procure similar services, the company decided that in order to grow revenues and profitability it needed to move to a standard model which would be acceptable to its existing large customers in return for cost savings. This would enable the company to extend into mid-market companies as well. The telecommunications company determined that it needed a service desk and asset management platform that could support delivery of standardized, Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)-compliant ICT services; measure and manage the delivery of those services against the strictly defined service level agreements (SLAs)

which its customers were demanding; and help

ensure that all work activity associated with services was tracked and billed accurately. In managing there are included many things.These are• Ensure the basic needs of the sponsored orphans as per UNCRC clause-3 •Supervise and monitor the activities of Field Offices in different districts. Case Study & Analysis • Prepare monthly and quarterly Reports

Acquiring capital: Acquiring capita is another problem for banglink. But this is very important to earning money by providing service. At present the servicing system of Banglalink is not fast. Increasing mobile phone company is a great problem for banglalink to acquiring capital. Call rate is another problem. Because 12

many company offered lower call rate but banglalink do not do that.its a great problem to acquiring capital. Banglalink initially failed to expand its network keeping pace with increased number of subscribers. That’s why it is difficult to acquiring capital. Banglalink invested heavily in 2007 continued that in 2008 for improving network quality. But they couldn’t raise their capital. But now the managing comity decided that to increase their service by including many package and by increasing network tower. Although the company had been delivering ICT services to large enterprises, these were custom services that were costly for both the company and its customers. In 2006, with its existing enterprise customers demanding lower prices and smaller mid-market companies looking to procure similar services, the company decided that in order to grow revenues and profitability it needed to move to a standard model which would be acceptable to its existing large customers in return for cost savings. This would enable the company

to

extend

into

mid-market

companies

as

well.

Distribution of products: In distributing products there many problem that should faced Banglalink. Distributing products like SIM card, servicing etc are very difficult. There has needed some people to distributing these things. There are also included some things•

Product Development, Management and execution

• Develop business for Mobile and fixed Internet based services • Monitor and assure quality of services • Responsible for achieving revenue target • Responsible for meeting broadband and EDGE subscription target • Analyze mobile internet and broadband product performance through detail data analysis.

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FINDING BETTER MOBILE CUSTOMERS: Today, Banglalink holds 47% share of the mobile market, but only 35% of the revenue. Vodafone’s current monopoly on W-CDMA (most phone makers have simply stopped releasing models for Telecom’s CDMA) means it hogs most of the high-end consumer and business customers. The ex-state telco will finally have not just a single BlackBerry, but many BlackBerries and the latest, hottest models. Finally, we’ll have Telecom phones with SIM cards. Nice. And at some point, iPhone too (for RIM, Apple and others always favour more than one carrier, all networks being more or less equal).

No guidance So Telecom should do better in mobile. The only solid metric he’d offer was that Telecom is aiming for 50% market share. If I were a shareholder, I’d want much more detailed guidance than that surrounding this make-or-break move. Certainly, the only way is up. In its first-half result announced Friday, Telecom's mobile revenue fell 6% to $399 million

Political and social problem: When banglalink entered the Bangladesh telecom industry in February 2005, the scenario changed overnight with mobile telephony becoming an extremely useful and affordable communication tool for people across all segments. But now it faces so many problems because of political problems. When change a government it faces so many problem like tax, changing business plan etc. Other things are enhancing the efficiency of communication s with citizens and other stakeholders. There also included social problem like containing costs while delivering increasing more complex service and providing a consist higher level of customer service across wide geographical areas. Sometimes government imposes extra VAT on Telecommunication Company like in 2008 government impose extra Tax on SIM. AS a result the price of SIM was increased. Corruption is another problem for telecommunication system. Some dishonest worker also create corruption. Not only that, some foreign T.C company

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Recommending suggestion to remove the problem From the very beginning of men’s civilization man has been advancing toward perfection through newer and newer inventioin.But corruption is the all time difficulty of any firm. Managing the firm we see and understand some sector is corrupted. We take proper step but all-time is not possible, we have to realize that we should be hard to control corruption. To Business in Bangladesh, Banglalink face some political problem .Government includes extra taxes on the SIM so we should to obedient to carry out the decision of government. Some years ago in Egypt govt includes 225% vat on per sim in all companies. Then the income of Egypt government increases this site. Almost 25% but when he rejected the includes taxes on the sim, the income of government increased 35% we also face this problem .Also the call rate should reduce.

Through Banglalink is subsidiary, Createch Group, an IBM Maximo value-added reseller (VAR), the company decided to implement an IBM solution for service desk and asset management to support its ICT outsourcing business. In fact, Createch extended the core IBM Maximo platform to create a specific solution which delivered additional required capabilities, and which was subsequently repatriated into the IBM Maximo portfolio as the basis for IBM Maximo for Service Providers. IBM Maximo for Service Providers introduces new capabilities specifically designed to support the delivery of managed services, including: •

Billing functionality, allowing for multiple billing methods across managed assets and services.

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This gives managed service providers visibility into all of the costs of maintaining assets and providing services, and offers customers complete transparency on their asset and service usage.

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Customer Agreements, providing SLAs, scope of service providing pricing and entitlements.

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Response Plans, including automatic assignment of appropriate personnel to handle requests from specific customers, selection of relevant job plans and work tracking. This helps to ensure that service providers respond consistently and efficiently to customer requests and provide full visibility into the progress of the response to both the customer and the managed service provider.

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Multi-Customer Operation, providing complete segregation of customer data. This allows multiple customers to be run on one IBM Maximo instance, reducing overall cost of ownership to the managed service provider. 15

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The IBM solution reduced the company’s cost of delivering service, significantly cutting costs of producing reports. Billing procedures are faster, more accurate and more streamlined. Fewer people are needed to process, review and correct customer bills. In addition, the solution enabled the company to adopt Service Management Best Practices (i.e., ITIL), which the market is demanding. The solution also enabled the company to offer very flexible and per-use based pricing. Billings have also increased, and payment is quicker. Customer satisfaction has increased because accurate information is resulting in faster resolution of customer issues. In addition, the company can track service levels being achieved and proactively fix problems. Customers can track service levels themselves and like the self-service option. Reduction in costs due to streamlining of operational processes. Increase in revenue and acceleration of payments. Enhancement of customer satisfaction because of faster resolution of issues.

[N.B: All data collect from Internet and Banglalink Customer care]

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