Chief Executive Officer of Bangladesh’s largest mobile phone operator said the company’s annual revenue would exceed Tk10,000 crore landmark in 2014.
The earnings expectation rides on the last three quarters’ revenue figure of Grameenphone when it achieved over 6% growth compared to the same period last year.
In 2013, the operator secured Tk9,662 crore revenue and already reported Tk7,674 crore in last three quarters of the current year.
As Grameenphone boasts having an average quarterly revenue of more than Tk2,500 crore with over 6% growth rate, it expects the figure to cross the landmark at the end of the year.
Such expectation has been disclosed days after the country’s leading mobile phone operator announced bagging 5 crore customers.
If Grameenphone exceeds Tk10,000 crore, it will be the second listed firms in DSE after British American Tobacco Bangladesh Company Ltd (BATBC) to enjoy such a yearly revenue.
According to the Dhaka Stock Exchange, among the listed firms, only BATBC has so far generated a yearly revenue of the amount. In 2013 BATBC reported Tk10,968 crore revenue.
“Securing revenue of Tk10,000 crore, increasing internet penetration and offering more and more mobile financial services with different mobile applications are now in our pipeline,” said Vivek Sood, chief executive officer of Grameenphone.
He was talking to a few of journalists at the Grameenphone’s head office GP House Thursday.
Vivek Sood said the operator also targets to have 5 crore Internet users in next two years.
“Not many companies in the world, especially the so-called least developed countries, have such a large customers base, and that also brings an obligation to us to offer more and more better services.”
In mid-September, Grameenphone became Bangladesh’s first mobile operator to have 5 crore subscribers which holds a 42% market share of the country’s mobile users.
Grameenphone started its journey in Bangladesh on March 26, 1997.
Vivek Sood said there are 60 lakh people using Facebook with Grameenphone’s network. He believes this social networking site can be the main factor of Internet penetrations in Bangladesh.
According to him, the customers now surf mainly Facebook, YouTube and two other messaging service Viber and Whatsapp and are using 65 terabytes of data everyday using the Grameenphone’s network, which was only 14-15 terabytes in the middle of last year.
Presently, Grameenphone has more than 1.09 crore Internet users and 57 lakh of them have got 3G connected.
Sood said as per the Grameenphone’s own method, the subscribers who used at least 150 kilobytes of data in last three months were counted as Internet users.
“A lot of users have activated Internet service. But they are not using so much of data. We count the number of Internet users according to our own system in which the customers have to use a minimum level of data to get counted,” said Grameenphone boss.
The operator introduced 3G services in September last year and has brought all 64 districts under the fast mobile broadband coverage by March this year as the first mobile phone operator in the country. It was done under its “Internet for All” programme.
The market leader took special programmes to supply 3G-enabled mobile handsets, various mobile applications and contents to pursue the goal.
Vivek Sood clearly stated that price is a big challenge to see further growth in 3G customers in Bangladesh, and so the company aims to reduce the handset price to $40 by next year from $50 on an average now with the partnership of different device makers.
However, he said the Grameenphone would continue to satisfy its big 2G customers base with offers like low cost handsets at Tk1,400 etc.
Grameenphone CEO said the country has already started to feel hungry of 4G mobile broadband. “But BTRC should announce a road map and prepare an investment policy for new technologies like 4G and LTE.”
“If the government allows us technological neutrality for 2G spectrum, we can offer 4G on 1800 band and offer the services faster,” Sood said.
On the issue of mobile number portability, he said they have no problem with it, but “most of the users in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh feel no loyalty to their numbers being used for long. They can easily change numbers. So, it (number portability) may not be successful in these countries.”