Technology is in the palms now. At the beginning we had to wait for several months before a phone line (landline) was requested from the government office. This extremely necesarry item was deemed as a 'Status Symbol' back then.
Think about that time when you had to talk to a foreign country. You had to book in advance for it and after that you may or may not get the call- everything was uncertain. On the other hand even if you got the line there was a possibility that the line was extremely noisy and you can't hear the folks on the other end! Apart from this there is always the matter of money spent.
The whole scenario had changed pretty fast. Now there is no hassle of getting a landline, the telephone soon came to your palms. The whole lifestyle of the people changed with it. The life became simpler and the work areas increased. The government is also benefitted in this case due to tax income. And there is always the added advantage of technological progress in the cellphone industry.
All these changes had come with the companies themselves. Dloit company of India had done a research on these present situations. They said, "If a country allows cellphone operators to operate at an increase of 10 %, then the financial yearly gain will amount to nearly 1 to 2 %. This sector also has a big role in the financial sector of Bangladesh.
The progression: After arranging the Telecommunications Act in 1998, it was predicted that within the next 10 years, 10 out of 100 will have a cellphone. At that time, the telephone industry only had a ratio of 0.4 telephones per 100 people From the research of 2004 4181787, BTRC predicts that by 2010, around 5 crore of the people will have telephone lines. This will increase the teledensity from the previous record to around 34% in every 100 people. The main reason for this teledensity are the mobile phone operators.
The teledensity is increasing exponentially; now one out of three have a cellphone and internet is even reaching the village areas.
An example is this: it wasn't long ago that the total mobile subscribers in 2004 were around 41,81,787 and fixed line subscribers were around 8lacs. The progress of subscribers within five years alone was wonderous. Now the mobile subscribers are around 58 lacs and the fixed phone subscribers around 99,88,069.
According to the survey carried out by the government, around 90 lac jobs are somehow created in this sector. Till now around 400 crore dollars were spent in this sector. Almost 90 percent of the tax returns are from this sector.
At present there are around 6 mobile phone operators. Grameenphone, AKtel, Banglalink, CityCell, TeleTalk and Warid. From the view of subscriber and profit, Grameenphone is at the top position.
Except for TeleTalk, the company names are local even though they have a bigger Global name outside of Bangladesh. These companies had invested a lot in the past and have plans for expansion. The main interest is profit undoubtedly. But the government should therefore have suitable laws and friendly atmosphere towards these investments. At the same time customer care is a big part of the whole investment. For example, in Pakistan they had already started a customer care center. At the same time there is a BTRC cell in Bangladesh.
There had been some complaints against the mobile phone operators. In particular, three mobile operators were charged for illegal VOIP at the era of the past caretaker government. On the other hand, ex-finance minister M Saifur Rahman had also raised this issue. This gave rise to a series of questions. At one time subscribers even complained of high call rates. The competition has increased but the calls have decreased.
Some companies are on the verge of collapse. In 2008 except for Grameenphone, no operator had made profits. No one knows who can profit from where and when. Many constraints are holding back these companies. But if you cannot make profit, then it is hard to make a company grow.
Back in 2006, the call rate was about 2Tk and 43 paisa. In the year 2008, this had reduced to 88 paisa. This is known to be the lowest call rate in the world.
The call rate had decreased and at the same time the number of callers have decreased. Back in 2004, the subscriber rate 117.57 percent and at 2005 it was 123.39 percent. The worst situation was in 2008 however with a subscriber rate of 13.27 in the first quarter, 12.25 in the second quarter and 3. 18 in the third quarter. There were no growth in the fourth quarter instead the subscriber rate dropped about a percent.
Mobile phone operators think that SIM tax is a prime setback in getting customers. They had to give 800tk tax per SIM card. Most of the SIMs are sold via dealers and they have to pay 800tk per SIM as soon as they hand it over to the dealers. Nobody can say for certain when these SIMs will be used or sold. If the tax on these Sims are reduced, then the caller rate will increase as well as the income generated by these companies will increase. Compared to a one time TAX of 800tk, if this is reduced, the government could earn a lot more from different sectors. In this case the projected subscriber is around 10 crore by the year 2010.
The market is contracting: The mobile phone industry is reducing on a daily basis. For this reason, the mobile companies who are providing various services, are now in a dilemma. Apart from Grameenphone, no one had any profit throught the year 2008. Banglalink spent around 400 crore back in 2004 but still now could not see a face of profit. AKTel could not give a profit value even after investing around 1400 crore Taka. Warid is in a worse state.
More or less all of the companies above are foreign investments from different countries except for TeleTalk. As an investor they have right to ask for some help from the government. The main help would be to rip off the SIM tax, as well as some laweful benefits. BTRC is responsible to see to this matter. At the same time, the Finance sector of the government have already suggested in cutting of SIM tax. Now we have to wait and see what the government decides after they have seen through the pros and cons.
In terms of teledensity Bangladesh is way inn the bottom compared to the countries of the world and so there is still scope to increase the subscribers in our country. To increase the financial dealings in this sector, the respective departments must work together and hope to build up a thriving market in the future.
