Banglalink's revenue falls
Banglalink's revenue has decreased 5.8 percent year-on-year to Tk 1,100 crore in the July-September quarter, reads a report of the operator's parent company Veon.
However, the third largest mobile operator remains satisfied, saying they were witnessing a return of business in the last couple of months following the purchase of 10.6 MHz spectrum in February.
Once a spirited operator, Banglalink was progressively becoming a bit-part player, with its revenues declining for the seventh consecutive quarter to reach Tk 1,070 crore in the first quarter of this year.
Though turning around with their new spectrum, the operator was yet to fully recover as the revenue declined 8.3 percent year-on-year to Tk 3,270 crore in the first nine months of this year, reads the financial statement.
Banglalink said they were happy with their bounce-back performance as the result of July-September quarter demonstrates movement in a positive direction with an overall revenue growth of 1.9 percent compared to the immediate past quarter.
Data revenue reached Tk 190 crore in the third quarter, which was 11.75 percent year-on-year growth, reads the Veon report. Following this growth, they are also now observing 40 percent more smartphone penetration under their network.
“The data revenue increased significantly in this quarter due to our stronger dual carrier network caused by the additional spectrum purchase earlier this year,” said Taimur Rahman, chief corporate and regulatory affairs officer.
Banglalink will pay a total of $308.6 million for the spectrum, excluding value added tax. An upfront payment of 60 percent has already been made.
In addition, Banglalink has paid $35 million to convert its existing spectrum in 900MHz and 1,800MHz bands into technology neutral spectrum, reads the report. Rahman said the increase of data revenue suggests that Banglalink was gradually transforming into a digital service provider capable of catering to the needs of the customers.
The customer base grew 2.8 percent year-on-year to 3.23 crore this quarter, supported by improved distribution and network availability, notwithstanding the intense pricing pressure in the market, they said.
However the pricing pressure caused a drop in average revenue per user by 9 percent year-on-year this quarter to Tk 110.
