Helping Customers through Communication Technologies: Grameenphone Ltd.

The Silicon Review

Empowering Society

The right and contemporary use of technology is the key to the progress of a nation. Keeping this in mind, Grameenphone always brings the future proof technology in order to facilitate your progress. Grameenphone promises you to bring the best of communication technologies so that you can Go Beyond.

It exists to help its customers get the full benefit of being connected. The success is measured by how passionately they promote it. Hence, with that it provides the power of digital communication, enabling everyone to improve their lives, build societies and secure a better future for all.

Its values are to Make It Easy, Keep Promises, Be Inspiring, Be Respectful, its Brand promise and Go Beyond. Grameenphone built its network on a nationwide basis. As of December 2017, the company’s network covered more than 99% of Bangladesh’s population with 2G services and more than 92% population with high-speed 3G networks. Grameenphone Ltd. has so far invested more than BDT 313 billion to build the network infrastructure. It is one of the largest taxpayers in the country, having contributed more than BDT 585 billion in direct and indirect taxes to the Government Exchequer since inception.

How It All Began

Grameenphone the leading telecommunications operator of Bangladesh is part of Telenor Group which has a presence in 13 markets across Europe and Asia.

Before Grameenphone’s inception, the phone was for a selected urbanized few. The cell phone was a luxury: a floating accessory for the select elite. The mass could not contemplate mobile telephony as being part of their lives.

Grameenphone started its journey with the Village Phone program: a pioneering initiative to empower rural women of Bangladesh. The name Grameenphone translates to “Rural phone”.

Starting its operations on March 26, 1997, the Independence Day of Bangladesh, Grameenphone was the first operator to introduce GSM Technology in this country. Grameenphone pioneered the then breakthrough initiative of mobile to mobile telephony and became the first operator to cover 99% of the country’s people with network

Since its inception, Grameenphone has built the largest cellular network in the country with about 13000 base stations. Presently, nearly 99 percent of the country's population is within the coverage area of the Grameenphone network. Grameenphone has always been a pioneer in introducing new products and services in the local telecom market.

Grameenphone was also the first telecommunication operator in Bangladesh to introduce the pre-paid service in September 1999. It established the first 24-hour Call Center, introduced value-added services such as VMS, SMS, fax,and data transmission services, international roaming service, WAP, SMS-based push-pull services, EDGE, personal ring back tone,and many other products and services. In October 2013 the company launched 3G services commercially. The entire Grameenphone network is 3G/EDGE/GPRS enabled, allowing access to high-speed Internet and data services from anywhere within the coverage area. There are currently over 30 million Internet users in the Grameenphone network.

Today, Grameenphone is the leading and largest telecommunications service provider in Bangladesh with more than 63 million subscribers as of September 2017

Did You Know?

Grameenphone has so far invested more than BDT 29,900 crore to build the network infrastructure. It is also one of the largest taxpayers in the country, having contributed more than BDT 52,340 crore in direct and indirect taxes to the Government Exchequer over the years. There are now more than 1600 GP Service Desks across the country covering nearly all Upazilas of all districts and 94 Grameenphone Centers in all the divisional cities. The company has about 3000 full and temporary employees. 700,000 people are directly dependent on Grameenphone for their livelihood, working for the Grameenphone dealers, retailers, scratch card outlets, suppliers, vendors, contractors, and others.

The Man Who made it Possible

Mr. Michael Patrick Foley, CEO:

He was appointed as the CEO on 26 May 2017. Before joining Grameenphone he was CEO of Telenor Bulgaria. A Canadian by birth, he joined Telenor in 2014 as CEO of Telenor Pakistan. He has more than 30 years of sales, marketing and operational experience in the telecom, retail and gaming sectors from both advanced and growth markets. He is a Graduate of McGill University in Montreal with BA in Organisational Psychology.