Things finding out about for Banglalink
Banglalink, after the most spirited operator in the market, appears to have gotten a spring back in its part of 2020 after two consecutive quarters of underwhelming performance.
In the first quarter of the year, the country's third major operator reported a 3.75 per cent year-on-year growth in earnings because of 4G, according to its parent company VEON's sydney.
Its income of Tk 1,163 crore was the highest after it purchased additional spectrum in February 2018 and committed to 4G services.
However, the operator did not disclose its profit status in the report published yesterday.
"Our simplified product offers accompanied by the continued expansion of 4G coverage has supported our data customer growth and improvement in data revenue," said Erik Aas, chief executive officer of Banglalink.
Through the quarter, Banglalink's data customers increased 7.8 per cent year-on-year and its own data revenue a whopping 18.5 % to Tk 265.78 crore.
Its data consumption growth between January and March was up 42.8 per cent year-on-year to 1 1,713 MB per user per month.
And the common earning per user on a monthly basis increased to Tk 113 from Tk 109 in the last quarter, that was its lowest yet.
Towards the end of March, Banglalink's 4G network covered 52 per cent of the populace, which also help its customers to use more data. Its 3G coverage was 73 per cent of the population, reads the report.
The carrier ended the quarter with 3.36 crore active users, up 1.9 per cent year-on-year.
To aid its customers through the general shutdown, Banglalink offers a few of its services cost-free and has improved access to digital reload channels.
Along with ensuring uninterrupted telecommunication services with their customers, Banglalink in addition has been active with various social initiatives that are beneficial to the persons of Bangladesh during this difficult time, Aas said.
The social initiatives include relief distribution among the populace in need, free e-learning facility for primary school students and toll-free hotlines to coronavirus testing centres.
The pandemic has exposed both customers and Banglalink to unprecedented challenges.
"Bangladesh is already a challenging market for us to operate in due to the high tax rates and the less favourable regulatory environment, and the existing crisis is posing another challenge to your business' sustainability. Nevertheless, we do hope to overcome this example soon and come out stronger," Aas added.
