Home ›› 25 Jul 2022 ›› Front
The government’s ban on the sales of new SIM cards of Grameenphone (GP), the largest telecom operator in the country, has led to an increase in SIM sales of three other operators — Banglalink, Robi and Teletalk.
In May, GP had captured 80 per cent of total sales of 8.5 lakh SIMs by four operators, according to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).
On June 29, BTRC banned GP, which has a whopping 8.495 crore subscriber base, from selling new SIMs until further notice for failing to provide quality services of voice calls and internet across the country.
At the time, Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Minister Mustafa Jabbar said that GP cannot be allowed to keep increasing its customer base without improving its quality of service.
“Until they improve the quality of service to a satisfactory level, there will be a ban on the sale of Grameenphone SIMs,” he said.
Grameenphone Head of Communications Khairul Bashar confirmed they were not violating the ban and the SIM activation process in their system remained disabled.
The situation has led new users around the nation to go for the other three operators.
Boon for others
Falze Rabbi, an agent who runs his businesses in the Karwan Bazar area of Dhaka, told The Business Post, “I used to sell SIM cards of all four operators but now selling SIMs of three because of the ban on GP.
“Currently, I sell roughly 20-25 SIMs every day. Most of them, at least 12-14, are of Robi. I used to sell 4-5 Robi SIMs every day before the government had imposed ban on GP.”
A Banglalink SIM vendor at Mirpur said first, they get the code of a registered agent and they acquire the SIM cards from him. “Then we receive a percentage from the sale of those SIMs.
“I’m now selling 20-22 Banglalink SIMs per day on average, a bit higher than my sales in previous months when I used to sell 12-14. The ban on GP SIM has not affected my business that much.”
Ashraf Ali runs a Flexiload business and is also a registered Robi agent in the Mohakhali area. He said, “I currently sell 10-12 Robi SIMs per day, which is almost double my usual sale.”
“Another reason behind the increase in Robi’s SIM sales is that it has a proper brand value now. People may say Aktel, Airtel or Robi, but we know that they are asking for Robi SIMs. Robi has good bundles and offers now that also help boost sales,”he said.
Talking to The Business Post, a Robi sales executive, who supplies SIMs to 42 shops, said the overall sale — which is around 250-300 — is not that high but the amount is still higher than in previous months.
“The sale usually also goes up when we give discount offers to reach our targets,” he added.
However, a Teletalk SIM vendor in the Mogbazar area said they are seeing almost the same number of customers as before since their customers are mainly the people who use state-run operator’s SIMs for government job applications or other special purposes.
“Dealers are also not supplying new SIMs against my demand. I currently sell 4-5 SIM cards on average every day,” he said.
Contacted, managements of Robi and Banglalink have declined to give their sale data, but admitted of spike in their business after the GP faced ban in their SIM card marketing.
GP yet to take measures
Responding to the matter, telecommunications minister Mustafa Jabbar told The Business Post, “We have been concerned about the quality of service of the country’s four telecom operators for a long time.
“GP got caught this time. However, even after the ban, I still haven’t seen any initiative by GP to improve their quality of services.”
For example, he said, “We had requested GP to ensure smooth network in the Padma Bridge area during the inauguration day based on the assumption that there would be around 10 lakh people there and at least half of them would be GP users.
“But Grameenphone failed and people suffered.”
The minister also explained, “If anyone has a market share of over 40 per cent, different conditions are imposed to control their business. But they [GP] have reached 52 per cent. If they want to expand their business and increase profit, they will have to do it by ensuring quality service.”
“They have to prove that they have improved their services. We cannot let the people suffer,” he added.
A GP SIM dealer, requesting anonymity, said, “If the ban on new SIM sales stays for a long time, we will have to reduce the business volume and the number of sales representatives we have.”
He said they were losing the chance to boost their earnings by selling SIMs at different fairs or banking on discount offers. “We have huge customer volumes in different areas but they have started to shrink.”
