GrameenPhone surges ahead
Bangladesh's leading mobile phone company signed up one million new subscribers in a record 40 days as the market continues to boom amid fierce competition. "We have now five million users. The latest million was added in 40 days," Syed Yamin Bakht, general manager of GrameenPhone said.

Launched in March 1997, GrameenPhone took more than six years to sign up its first one million subscribers but since late 2003 the company has witnessed rapid growth. GrameenPhone, a subsidiary of Norwegian telecom company Telenor, now has 62 percent of the country's eight-million-plus mobile phone users. Network coverage has been extended to nearly 80 percent. The company said that so far this year it had invested around 300 million dollars to boost its network coverage and boost market share.

BTTB falls behind
Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board failed to meet its target by half earning only Tk 328 crore in the first four months of the current fiscal. The board was set a target to earn about Tk 1,960 crore or about Tk 163 crore per month.

The state-owned telecom operator earned about Tk 1,410 crore in operating revenue against a target of Tk 1,650 crore in fiscal 2004-05 which was the lowest in the last four years. The board earned about Tk 1,535 crore against a target of Tk 1,700 crore in fiscal 2004, Tk 1,500 crore against Tk 1,650 crore in 2003 and Tk 1,583 crore against Tk 1,600 crore in 2002.

The board officials said although the board set a large target in the current fiscal it was `impossible' to meet the target as the number of international calls, contributing about 40 per cent revenues, continue to fall amid widespread use of illegal internet telephony also called VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol).

`The [board] would not earn more than Tk 1,400 crore in the current fiscal unless the government immediately acts to stop illegal VoIP operation,' said a high official of the board.`The board is losing crores of taka every month to illegal operators handling millions of minutes of incoming and outgoing international calls,' said the official.

According to a study of the board, the government loses about Tk 400 crore every year due to internet telephony, which is illegal.


Vehicles as telecom equipment!
Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board is to buy about 30 automobiles and 50 motorcycles from Siemens and Huawei Technologies, the two contractors of its mobile phone project in the name of purchasing telecom equipment.

The posts and telecommunication ministry has sent a revised project proposal of the telephone board to the planning commission for approval to purchase the vehicles at a cost of Tk 43 crore, which officials termed `wastage' and `misuse' of project money, as in the original project proposal, there was a provision to buy 29 vehicles for the project through local procurement.

The plan to buy vehicles in the name of telecom equipment from the contractors is merely to do them undue favour.
The board, in June 2004, signed two separate deals with Siemens SPA of Germany and Huawei Technologies of China for installing 2.5 lakh mobile connections across the country in the first phase after getting approval form the cabinet committee on purchase.

Sixth cell phone operator soon
Only two international mobile phone companies, Warid Telecom International of Abu Dhabi Group and Umniah Telecom of Jordan, have submitted offers to become the country's sixth cell phone operator.

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) invited tenders from local and international cell phone companies after the Abu Dhabi Group, known as Dhabi Group, showed interest in investing in the telecom sector of the country.
BTRC sources said an evaluation committee to be formed shortly would look into the offers made by the two companies to select one for issuing license to operate GSM (globalised system for mobile communication) service in the country. The committee would look into the financial and technical aspects of the offers, besides evaluating the general conditions.

The licence would be awarded for an initial period of fifteen years, with permission to cover entire Bangladesh. At present, four private and one state-run company are operating cell phone services in the country, four of them using GSM technology, while the remaining one, CDMA (Code division multiple access) technology.
FM radio channels get nod

The government has given permission to set up three new frequency modulation (FM) band radio channels, raising the number of such private channels to four. A total of 10 companies applied for the permission of operating FM radio channels, three of them got the licence. Only one channel, Radio Metrowave, is now on air for the Dhaka audience.

Radio Metrowave does not broadcast news due to a government restriction, but this condition will not be applicable for the new companies. The new channels are planning to cater to a different target audience by broadcasting diverse programmes to add a new dimension to the private radio channels. These three radio channels are expected to start broadcasting programmes in FM band within one year of receiving permission, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) and the Ministry of Information sources said.

Matiur Rahman Choudhury, managing director of Ayna Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), one of the three companies, said they would start operation next year. He said high priority would be given to hourly news service, talk show, sports news and most importantly broadcasting of traffic situation in the city. Another top official of the ABC said they are also planning to introduce programmes based on agriculture-related information which has a huge demand throughout the country.

The owner of another private radio channel said as soon as the channel starts operation they will design programmes considering the demands of the listeners. He said FM radio transmission has been quite successful in our neighbouring countries, especially India. Such private channels not only cater to the listeners' entertainment needs, but also address the social and political issues of public interest.

Although radio is increasingly getting unpopular with the advent of other entertainment media, especially satellite TV channels, the radio listeners are enthusiastic about the new FM channels but they expect quality programmes on diverse subjects.

Community radio yet to get nod
The operation of Community Radio, the radio for disseminating news and information of individual community, is yet to be started in the country due to the indifference of the government.

Community Radio, which has been playing an important role in transmitting local information, e-learning, entertainment, disasters management and mass awareness on different issues in most of the countries of the world, could be turned into a major means of transmitting information in Bangladesh during natural disasters in the coastal areas. Mass-line Media Centre (MMC) took an initiative to establish Community Radio in the disaster-prone coastal areas in 1997 but could not succeed as the government did not approve its proposal.

RTV to be launched on Dec 26

A new private television channel, RTV (Rosa Ali Television), will be launched on December 26. President Prof Iajuddin Ahmed is expected to inaugurate the telecast of the channel. Chairman and Managing Director (MD) Mosaddek Ali MP announced this at a press conference last month .He said that the programme of the new Television channel would be formulated to fulfil the demand of all classes of viewers.

Md. Sabur Khan
Md. Sabur Khan, Chairman, Daffodil Group: “Bangladesh has the capacity and credibility to acquire ‘million dollars’ order every year if the obstacles are removed”

“Although Bangladesh is on track to leap into the worldwide trillion dollars software and data entry services market for almost a decade, it could not make successful entry due to negligence, lack of vision, proper guideline and patronisation from the government,” observed Md. Sabur Khan, chairman, Daffodil Group.

Md. Sabur Khan, pioneer in the backward linkages in the IT and software industry in Bangladesh expressed his disappointment that this failure is not due to lack of resources and talent but lack of timely initiative and poor management.

Chairman of Daffodil Group, one of the leading commercial houses dedicated to IT and software related products in the country believes Bangladesh still can be benefited and grab a good-enough share of the market if necessary conditions are fulfilled.

“We have world class talent in programming, software and other relevant sectors who have proved their quality, capability and skill on several occasions. But we do not have managerial expertise to utilise their merit,” said Khan.

He pointed government’s go-slow policy and lack of vision as the main drawback to get expected business over the past years.

“Due to non-visionary attitude of the government we are not yet connected with the submarine cable that has kept the industry in a standstill situation,” said Khan.

Md. Sabur Khan, chairman of Daffodil software Ltd. said that they get huge offers to establish call centres but cannot receive these as the government hasn’t yet legalised Voice-Over-Internet Protocol (VOIP) which is depriving the country to earn crores in foreign exchange.

He said that Bangladesh gets most of the orders for graphics designing, animation, and establishing call centres.

He, however, is very optimistic about the future of the industry.

“Bangladesh has the capacity and credibility to acquire ‘million dollars’ order every year if the obstacles are removed,” said Khan.

According to him all we need to get expected result from this sector are- getting connected with the submarine cable, legalization of VOIP, skilled managerial expertise and patronisation by the government.

“To improve in the managerial level we might start working with the worldwide reputed companies. Involving Non residential Bangladeshis (NRB) in the industry would also improve our managerial level,” suggested Khan.

Although many local companies have already started appointing NRB in their enterprises but it is tough to find any overseas company willing to work with local companies because of aforesaid problems.

He admitted that public sector initiative is the main driving force to take the industry ahead but local investors are not interested as there is no authentic data on IT working environment, marketing prospects, technical and professional expertise, standardised scale with respect to international market, documentation and customization of a software system etc.

“An in-depth survey about existing marketing prospects is needed to formulate a comprehensive IT policy for the country and attract local and foreign investors. To take it to the optimum level this sector requires government policies, direct patronisation and development of telecom infrastructure,” said Md. Sabur Khan, chairman of Daffodil International University.

Unfortunately the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) lacks data of actual software exports Bangladesh has made.

Export from this sector at the moment is not that small and it has huge possibility to improve in the export scale if policy is made according to the requirements.

“Government should come forward to patronise this sector to increase the export level of software,” said Khan.

The local market here is near about Tk. 200 crore he assessed. He also pointed that beside managerial skill we also lack coordinated policy and planning.

“Copyright protection for software should be implemented and only then foreign firms would be interested for out-sourcing from Bangladesh,” said Khan.

The government should come forward with positive approach and should be cordial to solve the problem in this sector and it would establish as one of the

Our neighbor country India has emerged as one of the most successful countries in the software industry. Our merit and talent is at the same level that India has.

“If we can fulfill all the requirements this sector will emerge as one the leading export oriented industry in the country and can offer an economic surprise within a very short time,”

Ayon Islam

JobsDiary.com
JobsDiary.com has been launched with some unique features as a career management portal. It starts its journey to create a platform for employers and job seekers to meet and exchange information. Its goal is to minimize the hassle in HR by providing the right information and its plan is to provide the optimum help to headhunters.

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Business caught up with the Chief Executive and here is what he had to say about his company, its objectives and his vision of the future

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We do believe that having a good product or service and not advertising and promoting it is like not having a business at all. Our vision is to create a platform where every Bangladeshi will find job information. To provide all job information under one roof. JobsDiary.com would be act as a career information gateway for the Bangladeshi people.