Grameenphone

Infobox_Company
company_name = Grameenphone Limited
company_
company_type = Limited
company_
foundation = 1997
location = flagicon|Bangladesh Celebration Point, Road # 113 A, Plot 3 & 5, Gulshan, Dhaka, Bangladesh
key_people = Anders Jensen, CEO
num_employees = 5052 [ [http://www.telenor.com/press/articles/20061205/ Telenor Article on GP Employees] ]
industry = Telecommunication
products = Telephony, EDGE, GSM
revenue =700Million USD [ [http://www.telenor.com/press/articles/20061205 Telenor Article on GP Revenue] ]
operating_income=
net_income = profit 6,403.8 Million Taka [ [http://www.grameenphone.com/upload/GP_AR_05.pdf Grameenphone Annual Report 2005] ]
company_slogan = We are here to help [ [http://www.grameenphone.com/upload/GP_AR_05.pdf Grameenphone Annual Report 2005] ]
homepage = [http://www.grameenphone.com/ www.grameenphone.com]

Grameenphone ( _bn. গ্রামীণফোন) is a GSM-based cellular operator in Bangladesh. Grameenphone started operations on March 26, 1997. It is partly owned by Telenor (62%) and Grameen Telecom (38%).

Grameenphone is the largest mobile phone company in Bangladesh with 20.84 million customers as of August, 2008 [ [http://www.btrc.gov.bd/newsandevents/mobile_phone_subscribers/mobile_phone_subscribers_august_2008.php Mobile Phone Subscribers in Bangladesh, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission ] ] It is also one the fastest growing cellular telephone network in Bangladesh.

At the end of 2005, it had about 3500 base stations around the country with plans to add about 500 in the following six months. Grameenphone's stated goal is to provide cost-effective and quality cellular services in Bangladesh.

On the 16th of November, 2006 GP formally changed its logo to match its parent company Telenor's logo. According to GP the new logo symbolizes trust, reliability, quality and constant progress.

The name Grameenphone was kept as part of the new identity because the name Grameenphone carries with it all of the heritage, success and values of the companies past, added the then CEO of Grameenphone Erik Aas.

History

The idea of providing wider mobile phone access to rural areas was originally conceived by Iqbal Quadir, who is currently the founder and director of the [http://legatum.mit.edu Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship] at MIT. [ [http://www.economist.com/science/tq/displayStory.cfm?story_id=5571572 Economist article, March 9,2006] ] He was inspired by the Grameen Bank microcredit model and envisioned a business model where a cell phone can serve as a source of income. After leaving his job as an investment banker in the United States, Quadir traveled back to Bangladesh, after meeting and successfully raising money from New York based investor and philanthropist Joshua Mailman, and worked for three years gaining support from various organizations including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus of Grameen Bank and the Norwegian telephone company, Telenor. [ [http://www.asiaweek.com/asiaweek/technology/article/0,8707,132167,00.html Asia Week, June 21,2001] ] He was finally successful in forming a consortium with Telenor and Grameen Bank to establish Grameenphone. Quadir remained a shareholder of Grameenphone until 2004.

Grameenphone received a license for cellular phone operation in Bangladesh from the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications on November 28, 1996. Grameenphone started operations on March 26, 1997, the Independence Day in Bangladesh.

Grameenphone originally offered a mobile-to-mobile connectivity (widely known as GP-GP connection), which created a lot of enthusiasm among the users. It became the first operator to reach the million subscriber milestone as well as ten million subscriber milestone in Bangladesh.

Numbering scheme

Grameenphone uses the following numbering scheme for its subscribers:

+880 17 N₁N₂N₃N₄N₅N₆N₇N₈

Where, 880 is the ISD Code for Bangladesh and is needed only in case of dialing from outside Bangladesh.

17 is the prefix for Grameenphone as allocated by the government of Bangladesh. Omitting +880 will require to use 0 in place of it instead to represent local call, hence 017 is the general prefix.

The number N₁ to N₈ is the subscriber number.

Products offered

Grameenphone offers subscription in two categories, "Prepaid Subscription" and "Postpaid Subscription".

Prepaid subscriptions are sub-divided into three plans:

*smile (mobile to mobile connectivity within Bangladesh),
*smile BTTB (nationwide and international mobile and land line connectivity)
*djuice (a youth based mobile to mobile connectivity within Bangladesh).

Postpaid plan:
*xplore (nationwide and international mobile and landline connectivity)

Grameenphone also offers different value-added services including SMS, MMS, Welcome Tunes (Ringback Tones), Voice SMS, SMS Push-Pull Service, Voice Mail Service (VMS), and Fax and Data among others. Grameenphone was the first mobile operator in Bangladesh to offer EDGE services to its subscribers.

Other activities

Village phone

With the help of Grameenphone, Grameen Telecom operates the national Village Phone programme, alongside its own parent Grameen Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), acting as the sole provider of telecommunications services to a number of rural areas. Most Village Phone participants are women living in remote areas. Village Phone works as an owner-operated GSM payphone whereby a borrower takes a BDT 12,000 (USD 200) loan from Grameen Bank to subscribe to GP (Grameenphone) and is then trained on how to operate it and how to charge others to use it at a profit. As in September 2006, there are more than 255,000 Village Phones in operation in 55,000 villages around Bangladesh. This program has been replicated also in some other countries including in Uganda and Rwanda in Africa. [ [http://www.gsmworld.com/news/press_2006/press06_52.shtml GSM World press release] 17 October 2006, About Grameenphone section]

Community Information Centers

Community Information Center (CIC) or GPCIC is aimed at providing internet access and other communications services to rural areas. In February 2006, 26 CICs were established across the country as a pilot project. [http://www.telegeography.com/cu/article.php?article_id=13349 Telegeography Article] In this project, Grameenphone provides GSM/EDGE/GPRS infrastructure and technical support and other partners Grameen Telecom Corporation and Society for Economic and Basic Advancement (SEBA), are involved in selecting and training entrepreneurs to run the village centers. The computers in these centers in the pilot project are used by an average of 30 people a day, who pay a small fee to access email or Web pages. [ [http://www.gsmworld.com/news/press_2006/press06_52.shtml GSM Association press release] ] These CICs are used for a wide variety of business and personal purposes, from accessing health and agricultural information to using government services to video conferencing with relatives overseas. Grameenphone also trains the entrepreneurs so that they can give people advice on how to set up an e-mail account and best make use of the Internet.

CIC project is giving up to 20 million people the chance to use the Internet and e-mail for the first time. Following a successful pilot project, Grameenphone is going to set up approximately 560 centers in communities throughout Bangladesh by the end of 2006. The centers will be located in each Upazila (sub-district) of Bangladesh. As a result, up to 15 villages containing up to 40,000 people will be within reach of each CIC. In this information center, there will be personal computers connected to Grameenphone's existing GSM mobile network, which has been upgraded with EDGE technology to offer data transfer speeds of up to 16 kilobytes per second. [ [http://www.gsmworld.com/news/press_2006/press06_52.shtml GSM World press release] 17 October 2006]

Grameenphone Centers

A grameenphone center (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,Sagem and Benq. EDGE/GPRS modems and accessories such chargers and headphones are also sold at GPCs.

As of September, 2007, there are 76 [ [http://www.grameenphone.com/index.php?id=121 Grameenphone Official site :: Location of Grameenphone Centers ] ] GPCs and they are strategically located at all major locations of the country is operated by Grameenphone. As of late most of the newly opened gpc's are franchised. Most of these franchised outlets are in non-metropolitan areas.

The GPCs also provide the flexiload service without charging extra for small denominations unlike many retailers in the country. Thus making the gpc's and ideal place for many for such a service.

Every once a while the GPCs tie up with handset manufactures and start a nationwide marketing scheme by selling the specific vendors products at a price lower then the market and or in bundle with a grameenphone connection loaded with free minutes.

Criticism

Although Grameenphone is the leading Mobile Company in Bangladesh, it has sometimes been criticized for establishing a monopoly market in the country, especially before Banglalink came into operation. It also charges more for its service compared to other operators. But it claims that it can charge higher as it gives the best value for money because only GP has the widest and uninterrupted network coverage.

Grameenphone is an advocate of a mobile carrier oligopoly/monopoly citing apparent "consumer benefits" from a few companies controlling the entire market. Grameenphone's CEO told Bloomberg News that the company is considering acquisitions as 6 competitors is "two to three too many".

Illegal VoIP operations

Grameenphone had always advertised that it is the largest taxpayer in Bangladesh. Later it emerged that they also evaded taxes in the process through clandestine illegal operations.

October, 2007 fines

In October, 2007 the Government of Bangladesh fined Grameenphone USD 24.5 million for illegally depriving the government of revenue by ignoring laws requiring private operators to use the state-owned BTTB land phone network for international calls by its subscribers, when they used Voice Over Internet Protocal (VoIP) to receive such calls. [cite news |author=|title=Norway's Telenor unit in Bangladesh fined 24.5 million dollars |url=http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ippy5Zc2EKDkB2Clapc1YOHOb7Mg |publisher=Dhaka (Agence France-Presse) |id= |language=English|date=2007-10-08|accessdate=2007-10-08]

December, 2007 office raids

It soon emerged that GP was making a bigger business out of VoIP operations than initially stated. They were providing a host of ISPs and operators services that enabled VoIP. In December 2007, Grameenphone's corporate office was raided by government agencies and documents were confiscated. This was in connection to Grameenphone providing VoIP equipment and services to an ISP, AccessTel. This fact was not disclosed by Grameenphone when it was fined just two months ago. Grameenphone representatives commented “some additional irregularities were found” regarding Grameenphone providing special services to illegal VoIP operators. [cite news |author=|title=GP-supplied equipment seized from house of AccessTel owner |url=http://thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=14564 |publisher=The Daily Star |id= |language=English]

January, 2008 case filed

In January 2008, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission has filed a case against GP's two former CEO's and other officials for involvement in illegal VoIP business. [ [http://www.bdnews24.com/details.php?cid=2&id=37708 bdnews24.com] ]

August, 2008 fined Tk 2500 Million

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has fined Grameenphone Tk 2500 Million for illegal VoIP business, the second time the country's largest mobile phone operator has been penalized for such rogue activities, the telecoms regulators announced Thursday. [http://www.bauani.org/thinkings/2008/08/bdnews24-grameenphone-fined-tk-250.html]

Network Congestion

Although GrameenPhone claims to have the widest network coverage in the country, it suffers from severe network congestion during festivals and celebrations when people badly need smooth communication. As a result, emergency communications come into a complete standstill and the whole country is forced into primitive disruption. Surprisingly, GP neither notifies beforehand nor apologizes for the inconveniences. More interestingly, the most expensive GP Customer Service remains busy most of the time, compelling the customers to listen to its welcome music in exchange for time, money and patience.

During Norway visit of Muhammad Yunus

After Muhammad Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, he claimed during his visit in Norway to receive the prize that Grameen Bank had a gentlemen's agreement with Telenor where Telenor was to sell part of GrameenPhone to the bank. Telenor was not interested in fulfilling this agreement, arguing it was not juridically binding.

References

External links

* [http://www.grameenphone.com Project home page]
* [http://tedblog.typepad.com/tedblog/2006/10/iqbal_quadir_on.html Iqbal Quadir on The impact one cell phone can make on a village... ] TedTalks, July 2005
* [http://www.grambangla.com/grameen/GramPhone_IK.php Iqbal Qadir on Grameenphone]
* [http://www.apnic.net/mailing-lists/s-asia-it/archive/2000/03/msg00033.html Grameenphone case study]