Banglalink

Banglalink Digital Communications Ltd. (Bengali: বাংলালিংক; previously Orascom Telecom Bangladesh Ltd.) is the third largest cellular service provider in Bangladesh. It is fully owned by Telecom Ventures Ltd. (previously Orascom Telecom Ventures Ltd.) of Malta, which is a 100% owned subsidiary of Global Telecom Holding[3] which is in turn a subsidiary of the Dutch holding company VEON.

Banglalink Digital Communications Ltd.
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryTelecommunication
FoundedNovember 1996 (1996-11)[1]
HeadquartersTigers' Den, House#SW(H)04, Bir Uttam Mir Shawkat Sharak, Gulshan-1,
Dhaka
,
Bangladesh
Area served
Bangladesh (Nationwide coverage)
Key people
Erik Aas,[2] CEO
ProductsMobile Telephony, EDGE, GSM, GPRS, UMTS, HSDPA, HSUPA, HSPA, HSPA+, FDD-LTE
ParentGlobal Telecom Holding, VEON
Websitewww.banglalink.net

Banglalink attained 1 million subscribers by December 2005 and 3 million subscribers in October 2006. In less than two years, by December 2007, Banglalink overtook Aktel (Now Robi) to become the second largest operator in Bangladesh with more than 7.1 million customers.

As of September 2015, Banglalink had a subscriber base of 32.61 million with 24.81% market share.[4] It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Telecom Ventures Ltd. of Malta which is owned by Global Telecom Holding.

Banglalink had 1.03 million connections until December 2005. The number of] Banglalink users increased by 257 per cent[5] 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 20 August 2008, Banglalink got past the landmark of a 10 million subscriber base.[6]

History

Sheba Telecom (Pvt.) Ltd. was granted license in 1989[7] to operate in the rural areas of 199 upazilas. Later it obtained nationwide 15-year GSM license in November 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.

Tigers' Den (Banglalink's headquarters) at Gulshan.

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 finalised 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.

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. 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.[8] Afterward it was re-branded and launched its services under the "Banglalink" brand on 10 February 2005.

In March 2008, Sheba Telecom (Pvt.) Limited changed its name as Orascom Telecom Bangladesh Limited, matching its parent company name.

In July 2013, following the 2011 ownership restructuring in the parent company,[9] the company name changed for the second time to Banglalink Digital Communications Ltd. Banglalink Digital Communications Limited is a fully owned company of Telecom Ventures Ltd. which is a 100% owned subsidiary of Global Telecom Holding. VEON owns 51.9% shares of Global Telecom Holding following a business combination in April 2011, between VEON Ltd. and Wind Telecom S.p.A. VEON is a NASDAQ and Euronext Amsterdam-listed global provider of connectivity, with the ambition to lead the personal internet revolution for the 235 million+ customers it currently serves, and many others in the years to come. It offers services to customers in 13 markets including Russia, Italy, Algeria, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Armenia, Georgia, and Laos. VEON operates under the Beeline, Kyivstar, WIND, Jazz, banglalink, and Djezzy brands.

Numbering scheme

Banglalink uses the following numbering scheme:

+88019N1N2N3N4N5N6N7N8 & +88014N1N2N3N4N5N6N7N8


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

'19' & '14' are the access codes for Banglalink as allocated by the Government of Bangladesh. Omitting +880 will require using 0 in place of it instead to represent local call, hence 019 & 014 are the general access codes. N1N2N3N4N5N6N7N8 is the subscriber number.

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 nationwide dialling and ISD) and M2M. All connections provide EDGE, GPRS, 3G, HSPA, HSPA+, 4G, LTE 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. It also has three FnF numbers (Friends and Family) with cheaper rates for frequent call destinations. Desh was launched in 2006.
  • Desh rang was launched as a brand extension of desh. Rang is a Bengali word which means colour. It is introduced with the catchphrase Rangiye Din Apnar Jeebon (means colour your life.). This package is aimed 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.
  • Ladies, first!, with the slogan Shomporker Network (means network of relationships), was tailored for women. It offered four FnF numbers. It was launched in 2005 and is currently unavailable in the market. It introduced 1 second pulse for the first time in the prepaid market.
  • Be linked! was launched in 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 tail customers. These packages are known as Enterprise Personal, which is a subset of much larger Banglalink enterprise. All packages come with T&T local, nationwide dialling, ISD and e-ISD connectivity.

  • Personal package
  • Personal supplementary
  • Personal call and control

Former packages:

  • Upper class, a postpaid platform, was launched on 31 July 2005.[10] It was mainly targeting slightly upscale consumers. upper class was known for offering separate counters at sales and customer care centres 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[11] offers a wide range of products and services to suit the needs of the business community. It was first launched in December 2006. The current packages are:

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

Banglalink delivers customer care using its call centres and customer care networks. Currently Banglalink provides customer care services to its clients through:

  • Banglalink sales & care centres
  • Banglalink points]
    Banglalink point at Dhanmondi.
    Banglalink Points are aimed at providing connections, handsets, accessories and provide selected customer services like SIM replacement, reconnection, bill payment etc. They are located at key points around the country.[12] Kallol Group, a local distribution company, had partnered with Banglalink to operate at least forty Banglalink points throughout the country.[13] As of March 2008, the deal with Kallol Group has been called off and Banglalink is focusing on managing its own customer care centres.
  • Banglalink service points
  • Banglalink care lines are call centres.

Criticisms and penalty

In October 2007, BTRC fined Banglalink Tk. 1.25 billion for its involvement in illegal VoIP or call termination business.[14] The then BTRC chairman, major general (retd.) Manzurul Alam, confirmed Banglalink's involvement in the illegal trade. Banglalink, however, in a statement said the company has agreed to make a one time fixed payment of Tk. 1.25 billion to the government as compensation for its loss in revenues.

References
  1. "Home – Credit Rating Information and Services Ltd – Crislbd" (PDF). Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  2. Chief Executive Officer
  3. "Company Overview of banglalink digital communications limited". Bloomberg. Retrieved 4 November 2016.
  4. "Mobile Phone Subscribers in Bangladesh September, 2015". BTRC. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
  5. About Banglalink
  6. "Bangladesh's Banglalink tops 10 mln mobile users". Reuters. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  7. Alam, Mahbubul (2012). "Telecommunication". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
  8. "Egyptian Orascom Gets Sheba Telecom Malaysian stake". Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  9. "Vimpelcom confirms closing of 'large and complex' Wind Telecom deal". TeleGeography. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  10. "Banglalink unveils new post-paid service". Archived from the original on 18 January 2008. Retrieved 27 July 2009.
  11. "Banglalink rolls out GPRS and gets personal with businesses". Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  12. banglalink points
  13. "Kallol Group of Companies". Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  14. "Banglalink fined Tk 125cr for illegal VoIP business". The Daily Star. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
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