Allow New Mobile Operators

Allow new mobile operators to enter So that consumers feel much better.

Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission (BTRC) is going to hold hearing on the services provided by telecom operators on May 8. Prior to national election, it successfully abolished the 3-day data pack and made 7-day the minimum validity period. It retains the 30-day and unlimited validity packs. Consumers, however, pay a higher price for new validity packs. In general, prices of all data packs increased. Many operators lost small duration clients ,but made significant gains in profits in the first quarter of the current fiscal year. News reports divulged that GrameenPhone earned Taka 13.38 billion profit in the first three months. Meanwhile, Robi earned Taka 1.70 billion profit during the same period. It is important to note that Telenor and Axiata merged their Asian operations. So both the operators should be treated as same.

I used Teletalk for a long time as it offered the cheapest service in the country. But one week after the national election, quality of its service deteriorated. After making complaints, I did not see any improvement and I switched to other operators. Prior to using Teletalk, I interchangeably used various operators ,depending on which one offered the competitive prices. Many operators offered insurance for mobile phones in case they got damaged or new phone devices along with their SIMs. Sometimes later I discovered that far too often my phone got dead. I needed to run to a mobile servicing shop to flush/reinstall the operating software. Most of the time this happened while using the service of an operator based in Egypt. Another time it happened with another operator that offered freebasics, free internet service offered by Facebook. After paying between Taka 3000 and 4000 as mobile servicing fee for fixing my hacked phone in the span of three years,I thought it was time to change my phone. Back then Teletalk offered the most attractive services. And in the last two years I did not have to run for mobile servicing. I do not want to blame the operators directly for the hacking of phones. When we use browsers or internet,developers with ill intentions may target the mobile phones and infect them with malicious add-ons or software. Sometimes deranged individual within an operator may do sabotage act. But with the Teletalk I didn't have this kind of experience. I lost telepoints,balance and uncarried data. On some occasions ,I got back missing telepoints and balance after complaining to the highest level. On some occasions, I didn't get back anything. The horrifying experience of mobile servicing forced me later to document every telephone service mishap happened to me and report back to proper authority including the BTRC. In the last two and half years ,I did not have to spend much as I was using the cheapest service offered by public telecom operator. Later I learned Teletalk network expansion had been mostly done with Chinese credit and it owes a lot of money to public company and other vendors. Government is planning to sell part of its share to make it profitable again. I think the merger between Telenor and Axiata did a lot of damage to the services offered by the operators. Both the operators, followed by others, offered the identical services at the same price after that merger. Nowadays operators make hefty profits by selling internet data. But as consumers we don't know how to measure the data we consumed. I wrote a detailed piece about mobile data packs few years back. So I don't want to highlight the issue any more. The point is allowing few more operators or selling new licenses to operators originating from countries with huge trade potentials could make the telecom market competitive again. If we allow availing the service of railway optical fiber network and satellite internet along with the license ,then more investors feel encouraged to step forward. Prior to election, a Telenor director in an interview with a local daily hinted to wind up their operations here. But few weeks ago GrameenPhone boss in an interview told they made a u-turn on that decision and decided to stay. It is a good news,otherwise we will see another round of increase in the prices of telecom services.

BTRC has to take fair share of the blame. It failed to stop the merger between operations of Telenor and Axiata here in Bangladesh. For more than a decade telecom operators remained top revenue source of the government. How could BTRC allow such merger inside Bangladesh? It directly affected the revenue earning in this sector. Look at the first three quarter of the profits of the two( or same) operators. BTRC should make a regulation about publishing details about unused data in a year. Because consumers pay for data but some data remain unused and do not carry forward. So they have right to know what the operators do with that data. This may fall into wrong hands or be used in wrong purposes. Operators should disclose what amount of data remains unused and what they do with that. I think it should be given back to consumers as bonus or special offers or to offer welfare services like free internet for education/social awareness/alleviating digital divide. Nowadays we see telecom, real estate regulatory bodies like RAJUK are being headed by military men. I completely oppose this practice as those who lack transparency and accountability could not call into question others integrity. In that light BTRC simply cannot charge operators Taka 10 for some of the data collection activities it intends to undertake. In some hearings BTRC survey report justified abolishing short duration data pack. Contrary to the survey report, many news reports divulged that many consumers were unhappy with such idea. In this case one may doubt that findings are predetermined. I think Parliamentary committee should be given the task to steer the activities of BTRC and anti-trust activities in telecom services. In functioning democracies, Parliament plays a greater role in such case. We know we have problems here but we should start the practice and rely less on men-in-fatigue. It is a surprise that many agencies failed to anticipate the biggest merger in the telecom industry that happened in Malaysia, where many former senior army personnel and their relatives took refuge. Look at the strategic ties with Qatar. Despite commitment of boots-on-the-ground, Qatar bluntly refused to sell LNG on deferred payment. And the decision of strategic ties with Qatar was taken by few sidestepping the Parliament. Let's come back to point. We need new telecom operators to give a relief to the consumers and to augment the govt revenue.

Some Concerns Over A Merger (Updated)

[Reproduced below is a piece titled "Some Concern Over A Merger"that I penned and published on April 14 on this site. The merger of Axiata and Telenor in Malaysia, formally made public on June 21,2021, has implications for Bangladesh as the two have large subscriber base, controlling two-third of the market share.]

Merger of two rivals on foreign shore
Leaves a market with competition no more.
Allow entry of new operator
In exchange of market access for export sector.

In recent years, competition in Bangladesh economy is gradually waning. Cellular phone service offers the apt example. Earlier we had 5 operators. Merger between Robi and GrameenPhone reduced the number into 4. Recently a news broke out that Telenor and Axiata merged their operations in Malaysia. Telenor operates GrameenPhone and Axiata operates Robi in Bangladesh. Back in 2019, the two companies hinted that they would go for a merger and form a bigger GSM service company in Asia. But the communiqué made it clear Axiata and Telenor's Bangladesh operations would not be touched by the merger decision and they would operate as two separate companies. Despite their claim, their decisions may have significant influence over the cellular phone service industry of Bangladesh.

According to Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission (BTRC), there were 68.7 million subscribers in 2010, in 2019 the number rose to 157.5 million. Till January 2019, Grameenphone had 73.06 million subscribers, Banglalink had 33.69 million , Robi had 46.90 million and Teletalk had 3.88 million subscribers (Source: Bangladesh Economic Review 2019). Clearly other operators paled to insignificance besides Grameenphone's subscriber base. Following the merger with Airtel, Robi acquired greater market share too.

Despite the repeated assurance from the operators if the news becomes true, true number of operators will come down to 3. Teletalk is operated by government by the way. This clearly has consequence for government as well as for consumers.

We have seen that relations between government and operators turned sour in recent years over contested tariff, slapping of supplementary duty, termination of employee and quality of services.

As operators become disenchanted with the government, consumers bear full brunt of it. They pay higher prices for existing products and experience poor service.

Back in 2018, I wrote a piece on how a decision by government about raising the duration of smaller data pack led to increase in data pack price and undermined consumers' interest.

When Robi and Airtel merger took place, Axiata paid Tk 1 billion as fees to regulatory authority. In addition, winding up of redundant customer centers and voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) were introduced to retrench cost.

[In the beginning of June, more than 100 employees of Grameenphone have been included in the list of VRS(Source: Daily Prothom Alo,June 20, 2021).]

It puzzled me that how two parent companies merged their businesses in somewhere else but isolate the other one in Bangladesh. No matter how convincing it sounds we have to take it with a dollop of salt. If Grameenphone and Robi exist as two different independent operators , they will offer competing products to consumers. Such competition will allow consumers to attain desirable product at affordable price. Parent company of Robi and Grameenphone has leverage to influence Bangladeshi market. The two operators may cease to offer competing products and thereby shape their anticipated profit.

Furthermore, such decision has other implications at various stages of business. One of the operators may incur loss and file for bankruptcy and shirk responsibility while parent company in Kualalumpur may sit on profits without diverting any part of it to troubled operator.

[A leading operator, also involved in the merger, discontinues a site that showcases games developed by Bangladeshi gamers. Promotional packages that offer attractive products are few. Operators put an end to free internet service, following a government instruction, that played a key role in educating kids from rural areas and to narrow the gap created by digital divide. Not only that the leading operators are less keen to get involved in CSR programs that were more prevalent few years ago.]

As mentioned earlier, Robi-Airtel amalgamation yielded Tk 1 billion to government coffer. Moreover, such merger required ample clearance from various branches of government. But parent company 's decision may be based on averting any regulatory intervention as such merger will give the two operators a subscriber base of 119.96 million and overwhelming dominance over the market, pushing the consumers at the mercy of operators. Moreover, declaration of a merger is likely to violate the Competition Act 2012, which was introduced to "prevent, control and eradicate collusion, monopoly, oligopoly, combination or abuse of dominant position or activities adverse to the competition "(Source: Bangladesh Competition Commission,Wikipedia).

So the statement of separate business operations might be a masquerade to eschew the issues involved in any public disclosure of merger.

No matter what the motif is Bangladesh should go for calling new operators to enter its GSM service market.

Prior to introduction of GSM service, tobacco related companies remained as biggest tax-revenue providers. Gradually mobile operators took their place. Merger news casts shadow over government's tax-revenue earnings from mobile operators. Now the biggest two operators are now in far more comfortable position to produce balance sheets that will be favorable to them, resulting in fewer corporate revenues from them.

[Once again government agencies that are supposed to keep tab on such developments in corporate world, particularly when it is concerned with golden goose of revenue earnings, miserably failed to notify the government (or intentionally swallowed it for personal gains). Government should strengthen and equip NBR, Ministry of Finance or Ministry of Foreign Affairs so that they could inform the government prior to such developments in corporate world. It is a must because they are directly accountable to government and constitutional bodies. So their actions, success and failure will reflect government policies and will be subject to scrutiny.]

So Bangladesh has no option but to allow new entrants into this market.We have to take some strategic considerations while offering new license. We have to make sure that such lucrative license could open new doors for our goods to the uncharted territories. For instance, we may welcome operators from Africa, South America, Turkey, Russia and Japan in exchange of greater market access of Bangladeshi goods like RMG , pharmaceuticals etc. Earlier we had not done it. Now, we should not repeat the same mistake.

No matter what statement the operators trot out, we, the consumers, look askance at them. At the end of the day, consumers pay a heavy toll from their own pockets when some wayward operators are in the thick of undermining the competitive business environment. We are witnessing it with growing concerns in many other areas!

Some Concerns Over A Merger

Merger of two rivals on foreign shore
Leaves a market with competition no more.
Allow entry of new operator
In exchange of market access for export sector.

In recent years, competition in Bangladesh economy is gradually waning. Cellular phone service offers the apt example. Earlier we had 5 operators. Merger between Robi and GrameenPhone reduced the number into 4. Recently a news broke out that Telenor and Axiata merged their operations in Malaysia. Telenor operates GrameenPhone and Axiata operates Robi in Bangladesh. Back in 2019, the two companies hinted that they would go for a merger and form a bigger GSM service company in Asia. But the communiqué made it clear Axiata and Telenor's Bangladesh operations would not be touched by the merger decision and they would operate as two separate companies. Despite their claim, their decisions may have significant influence over the cellular phone service industry of Bangladesh.

According to Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission (BTRC), there were 68.7 million subscribers in 2010, in 2019 the number rose to 157.5 million. Till January 2019, Grameenphone had 73.06 million subscribers, Banglalink had 33.69 million , Robi had 46.90 million and Teletalk had 3.88 million subscribers (Source: Bangladesh Economic Review 2019). Clearly other operators paled to insignificance besides Grameenphone's subscriber base. Following the merger with Airtel, Robi acquired greater market share too.

Despite the repeated assurance from the operators if the news becomes true, true number of operators will come down to 3. Teletalk is operated by government by the way. This clearly has consequence for government as well as for consumers.

We have seen that relations between government and operators turned sour in recent years over contested tariff, slapping of supplementary duty, termination of employee and quality of services.

As operators become disenchanted with the government, consumers bear full brunt of it. They pay higher prices for existing products and experience poor service.

Back in 2018, I wrote a piece on how a decision by government about raising the duration of smaller data pack led to increase in data pack price and undermined consumers' interest.

When Robi and Airtel merger took place, Axiata paid Tk 1 billion as fees to regulatory authority. In addition, winding up of redundant customer centers and voluntary retirement scheme were introduced to retrench cost.

It puzzled me that how two parent companies merged their businesses in somewhere else but isolate the other one in Bangladesh. No matter how convincing it sounds we have to take it with a dollop of salt. If Grameenphone and Robi exist as two different independent operators , they will offer competing products to consumers. Such competition will allow consumers to attain desirable product at affordable price. Parent company of Robi and Grameenphone has leverage to influence Bangladeshi market. The two operators may cease to offer competing products and thereby shape their anticipated profit.

Furthermore, such decision has other implications at various stages of business. One of the operators may incur loss and file for bankruptcy and shirk responsibility while parent company in Kualalumpur may sit on profits without diverting any part of it to troubled operator.

As mentioned earlier, Robi-Airtel amalgamation yielded Tk 1 billion to government coffer. Moreover, such merger required ample clearance from various branches of government. But parent company 's decision may be based on averting any regulatory intervention as such merger will give the two operators a subscriber base of 119.96 million and overwhelming dominance over the market, pushing the consumers at the mercy of operators. Moreover, declaration of a merger is likely to violate the Competition Act 2012, which was introduced to "prevent, control and eradicate collusion, monopoly, oligopoly, combination or abuse of dominant position or activities adverse to the competition "(Source: Bangladesh Competition Commission,Wikipedia).

So the statement of separate business operations might be a masquerade to eschew the issues involved in any public disclosure of merger.

No matter what the motif is Bangladesh should go for calling new operators to enter its GSM service market.

Prior to introduction of GSM service, tobacco related companies remained as biggest tax-revenue providers. Gradually mobile operators took their place. Merger news casts shadow over government's tax-revenue earnings from mobile operators. Now the biggest two operators are now in far more comfortable position to produce balance sheets that will be favorable to them, resulting in fewer corporate revenues from them.

So government has little choices to allow new entrants into this market.We have to take some strategic considerations while offering new license. We have to make sure that such lucrative license could open new doors for our goods to the uncharted territories. For instance, we may welcome operators from Africa, South America, Turkey, Russia and Japan in exchange of greater market access of Bangladeshi goods like RMG , pharmaceuticals etc. Earlier we had not done it. Now, we should not repeat the same mistake.

No matter what statement the operators trot out, we, the consumers, look askance at them. At the end of the day, consumers pay a heavy toll from their own pockets when some wayward operators are in the thick of undermining the competitive business environment. We are witnessing it with growing concerns in many other areas!

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(02 avril --- 09 avril)

Selon un reportage, la propagation de Covid-19 est devenue pire. Plus de 7.000 cas de Covid-19 ont été détectés chaque jour. Le jeudi 74 morts ont été enregistrées, le plus dans un jour. Le Center for Disease & Prevention des États-Unis a élevé le niveau de la propagation de Bangladesh à la 4ème position et a prévenu les Américains de voyager le pays. Une enquête conjointe, faite par icddr,b et le bureau de la santé, a divulgué que le variant sud-africain a ciblé de plus en plus de gens au Bangladesh.

Selon un reportage, une bande de gens inconnus ont attaqué les maisons et bureaux de conseiller et fonctionnaire de Saltha à Faridpur. Quand des policiers et une fonctionnaire avaient tenté d' imposer mesures de confinement, une bagarre a rendu violente. 30 personnes ont été blessées et 1 a été tuée.

Selon un reportage, le gouvernement a déployé mitrailleurs avec mitrailleuses dans 18 gendarmerie à Sylhet où installations publiques et gendarmeries ont été ciblées pendant manifestations d' un groupe fanatique.

Selon un reportage, un bateau a été chaviré dans un fleuve de Narayanganj après avoir percuté par un bateau-citerne. 34 personnes ont été mortes dans l'accident.

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(6 septembre --- 13 septembre)

Selon un reportage, société norvégienne Telenor dans un communiqué s'est dit qu'elle avait brusquement mis le fin au pourparlers de fusion entre Telenor et Axiata dans le marché de l'Asie du sud.

Selon un reportage, une explosion mystérieuse dans un restaurant à Gazipur a laissé blessé une dizaine de personnes.

Selon un reportage de BBC, Tatmadaw a construit facilité militaire sur les villages de Rohingya ciblé par violence et assaut incendiaire.

Selon un reportage, incendie a ravagé une usine de frigo à Gazipur.

Selon un reportage, les ouvrières d'atelier de confection font au sujet de harcèlement sexuel au Bangladesh. Le plateforme d'atelier de confection, BGMEA, se dresse contre le reportage de Guardian.