Grameenphone Limited

Grameenphone Limited

Company at a Glance

Type : Limited

Founded : 1997

Headquarters : Celebration Point, Road # 113 A, Plot 3 & 5,

Gulshan, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Key people : Anders Jensen, CEO

Industry : Telecommunication

Products : Telephony

Revenue : 700Million USD<href=”#_note-0″ title=””>[

Net income : ? 6,403.8 Million Taka

Parent : Telenor ASA

Employees : 5052

Slogan : We are here to help

Website : http://www.grameenphone.com/

About The Company

Grameenphone (Bengali: ??????????) 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 16.48 million customers as of December, 2007.[5] 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.

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 PSTN (nationwide and international mobile and land line connectivity)

djuice (a youth based mobile to mobile connectivity within Bangladesh).

Postpaid subscription are sub-divided into two plans:

xplore Package 1 (nationwide and international mobile and landline connectivity)

xplore Package 2 (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.

History

The idea of providing wider mobile phone access to rural areas was originally conceived by Iqbal Quadir, who is currently the founding director of the Program in Developmental Entrepreneurship at MIT. He was inspired by the Grameen Bank micro-credit 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. 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.

Special Event

GP faces license cancellation threat
BTRC accuses it of violating terms of agreement, gives 30 days to the mobile leader to defend itself. Bangladesh, Thursday, January 31, 2007

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) yesterday sought explanation from the country’s largest telecom company Garmeenphone (GP) as to why its license should not be cancelled or suspended on charges of violating the terms of its license agreement.

According to the telecom watchdog show cause notice, Grameenphone will have to respond within the next 30 days, otherwise BTRC might cancel or suspend the leading telecom operator’s activities.

BTRC Chairman Maj Gen (retd) Manzurul Alam confirmed the issuance of the notice.

Talking to The Daily Star a GP spokesperson said, “Yes, we have received the notice. We are fully cooperating with the authority in this regard. We will also response accordingly.”

GP’s involvement in illegal VoIP (voice over internet protocol)

The telecom watchdog issued the notice following a recent revelation by it of GP’s involvement in illegal VoIP (voice over internet protocol) operation and illegal international call termination.

BTRC filed a case against 10 former and in service high officials of GP including two former CEOs Erik Aas and Ola Ree, accusing them of being involved in the illegal activities.

Grameenphone, AccessTel, a local internet service provider, and Malaysia-based international call carrier DiGi Telecommunications are also accused in the case.

BTRC filed the case with Gulshan police station on January 16.

According to the first information report (FIR), the implicated former GP officials are ex-CEOs of the company Erik Aas and Ola Ree, former technical director Thor Randhaug, former chief technical officer Yogesh Sanjeev Malik, and former sales and marketing director Mehboob Chowdhury.

The in service accused GP officials are Khalid Hasan, director of regulatory and corporate affairs, Md Shafiqul Islam, chief technical officer, Kafil HS Muyeed, director of new business, Md Arif Al Islam, director of finance, and Espen Wiig Warendroph, head of revenue assurance.

The January 16 case was a follow-up of an 8-day long Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) raid, which started on December 6, 2007, on the GP head office in Gulshan of the capital. The raid recovered a large number of illegal VoIP equipment.

During the raid Rab officials claimed that they had evidence of GP providing VoIP equipment to AccessTel to run an illegal call termination business. The law enforcers found four circuits of E1 technology that connected the GP lines with AccessTel’s.

DiGi Telecommunications was accused as it has a bilateral deal with GP to terminate the latter’s international calls. Norway-based Telenor, the major stakeholder of Grameenphone, is also a shareholder of Digi Telecommunications.

BTRC sources said GP terminated international calls through DiGi Tel. GP’s earnings from international calls are deposited in Webstein Bank in Singapore. But a considerable amount of the money might have been siphoned off from the bank instead of its dispatch to Bangladesh, apprehends BTRC.

Disclaimer:

The information contains in this web-site is prepared for educational purpose. This site may be used by the students, faculties, independent learners and the learned advocates of all over the world. Researchers all over the world have the access to upload their writes up in this site. In consideration of the people’s participation in the Web Page, the individual, group, organization, business, spectator, or other, does hereby release and forever discharge the Lawyers & Jurists, and its officers, board, and employees, jointly and severally from any and all actions, causes of actions, claims and demands for, upon or by reason of any damage, loss or injury, which hereafter may be sustained by participating their work in the Web Page. This release extends and applies to, and also covers and includes, all unknown, unforeseen, unanticipated and unsuspected injuries, damages, loss and liability and the consequences thereof, as well as those now disclosed and known to exist.  The provisions of any state’s law providing substance that releases shall not extend to claims, demands, injuries, or damages which are known or unsuspected to exist at this time, to the person executing such release, are hereby expressly waived. However the Lawyers & Jurists makes no warranty expressed or implied or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product or process disclosed or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product process or service by trade name, trade mark, manufacturer or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation or favouring by the Lawyers & Jurists. The views and opinions of the authors expressed in the Web site do not necessarily state or reflect those of the Lawyers & Jurists. Above all, if there is any complaint drop by any independent user to the admin for any contents of this site, the Lawyers & Jurists would remove this immediately from its site.