Grameenphone said that they are working to improve the quality of service. After the ban on SIM sales, the operator made some commitments to improve its services, including increasing the frequency, installing new towers, connecting the towers with fiber optic cables.
Grameenphone said that they will buy radio frequencies worth about 60 billion taka from the auction in 2021 and 2022. The spectrum they bought in 2021 has been fully installed in the network and on November 1 the process of setting up new radio frequencies bought in the last auction in March began.
The operator said that they have set a target of installing 1,900 new towers in 2022. The operator can install a total of 1604 towers by October. He installed 1600 towers in 2021.
The leading telecom operator has committed to connect 34 per cent of its towers with fiber optic cables within a year.
The leading telecom operator has committed to connect 34 per cent of its towers with fiber optic cables within a year. They can complete the work of connecting 28 percent with fiber optic cables in November.
The issue of distribution of towers among operators was also resolved.
Grameenphone officials claimed that the quality of their services had improved because of these steps. The 4-G internet speed which was 7 megabits per second (Mbps) was found to be 17 Mbps in a recent test conducted by the operator.
According to a study by BRTC in 2021, the call drop of Grameen Phone was much below the benchmark rate of 2 per cent. In terms of call drop percentage, Grameenphone’s performance was better than other operators.
Grameenphone is the number one mobile phone operator in the country in terms of subscriber base and revenue. The National Board of Revenue (NBR) on 28 December awarded Grameenphone for being the highest tax payer in the telecom sector in the 2021-22 financial year. He received this award seven times in a row.
According to Grameenphone, they paid more than 1.03 trillion taka to the government in taxes and other fees till September since the start of their operations in the country. They paid 102.80 billion taka to the government in 2021. With an investment of over Taka 437 billion, Grameenphone is one of the largest foreign investors in Bangladesh. Grameenphone works on creating entrepreneurship and enhancing the skills of the youth and making the Internet safe for all, among other activities. The company also sponsors sports and cultural activities. Grameenphone received the Digital Bangladesh Award in 2021.
When asked about the matter, Grameenphone said in a written reply to Prothom Allo that the ban on the sale of SIMs is completely disappointing for an operator. Thousands of customers are unable to buy Grameenphone SIM cards everyday.
Grameenphone hopes to lift the ban soon to implement Smart Bangladesh.
