Introduction: Grameenphone in Bangladesh started providing mobile telephony services in 1997 and is partly-owned by Telenor.

In addition to core voice services, Grameenphone offers a number of value-added services on both a contract and prepaid basis. Grameenphone is the largest of in total six mobile operators in Bangladesh. Mission: GrameenPhone is now the leading provider of mobile communications services in Bangladesh. It provides new, unique and attractive offers & Value-added Services to its customers. That is why this telecom company is so much popular in Bangladsh. Grameenphone offers a number of value-added services, in each case on both a contract and prepaid basis. Value-added services include voice messaging services, SMS, MMS, ring-back tones and data services through EDGE/GPRS. Grameenphones services have some of the most advanced and up-to-date features in the Bangladeshi market. For example, Grameenphone was the first Bangladeshi mobile operator to launch WAP in 2001 and EDGE service in 2005. Grameenphone offers innovative services in line with socio-economic conditions of Bangladesh. In 2006, Grameenphone introduced HealthLine, a 24 hour medical call centre manned by licensed physicians, and BillPay, which allows utility bill payments to be made by mobile phone. Studyline, a call centre based service providing education related information, was launched in October 2009. Grameenphone has established approximately 500 Community Information Centres which aim to bring affordable Internet access and other information based services to people in rural areas of Bangladesh. In 2009, Grameenphone introduced branded plug and play USB Internet access modems and branded handsets at a very affordable price. Grameenphone won the GSMA Global Mobile Award for Best use of Mobile for Social and Economic Development for its HealthLine. Grameenphone also won the GSMA Green Mobile Award jointly with Huawei Technologies for building an environment friendly network in Bangladesh. Grameenphone has the largest network with the widest coverage in Bangladesh and the entire network is EDGE/GPRS enabled. The Grameenphone network currently covers almost the entire population of the country. Vision: Grameenphone was the first company to introduce GSM technology in Bangladesh. It also established the first 24-hour Call Center to support its subscribers. With the slogan Stay Close, the vision of Grameenphone is To provide affordable telephony to the entire population of Bangladesh. To become the best mobile communications service provider in Bangladesh.

History: The idea of providing wider mobile phone access to banana areas was originally conceived by Iqbal Quadir, who is currently the founder and director of the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at MIT. He was inspired by the Grameen Bank microcredit model and envisioned a business model where a cell phone can serve as

a source of income. After leaving his job as an investment banker in the United States, Quadir traveled back to Bangladesh, after meeting and successfully raising money from New York based investor and philanthropist Joshua Mailman, and worked for three years gaining support from various organizations including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus of Grameen Bank and the Norwegian telephone company, Telenor.He was finally successful in forming a consortium with Telenor and Grameen Bank to establish Grameenphone. Quadir remained a shareholder of Grameenphone until 2004. Grameenphone received a license for cellular phone operation in Bangladesh from the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications on November 28, 1996. Grameenphone started operations on March 26, 1997, the Independence Day in Bangladesh. Grameenphone originally offered a mobile-to-mobile connectivity (widely known as GPGP connection), which created a lot of enthusiasm among the users. It became the first operator to reach the million subscriber milestone as well as ten million subscriber milestone in Bangladesh. Ownership Structure: The shareholders of Grameenphone contribute their unique, in-depth experience in both telecommunications and development. It is a joint venture enterprise between Telenor (55.8%), the largest telecommunications service provider in Norway with mobile phone operations in 12 other countries, and Grameen Telecom Corporation (34.2% ), a nonprofit sister concern of the internationally acclaimed micro-credit pioneer Grameen Bank. The other 10% shares belong to general retail and institutional investors.

Fig: Ownership Structure (%) The technological know-how and managerial expertise of Telenor has been instrumental in setting up such an international standard mobile phone operation in Bangladesh. Being one of the pioneers in developing the GSM service in Europe, Telenor has also helped to transfer this knowledge to the local employees over the years The international shareholder brings technological and business management expertise while the local shareholder provides a presence throughout Bangladesh and a deep understanding of its economy. Both are dedicated to Bangladesh and its struggle for economic progress and have a deep commitment to Grameenphone and its mission to provide affordable telephony to the entire population of Bangladesh.

Grameen Phone Organogram & Management:

Network: According to Grameenphone, it has so far invested more than BDT 10,700 crore (USD 1.6 billion) to build the network infrastructure since 1997. It has invested over BDT 3,100 crore (USD 450 million) during the first three quarters of 2007 while BDT 2,100 crore (USD 310 million) was invested in 2006 alone. Grameenphone has built the largest cellular network in the country with over 10,000 base stations in more than 5700 locations. Presently, nearly 98 percent of the country's population is within the coverage area of the Grameenphone network. The entire Grameenphone network is also EDGE/GPRS enabled, allowing access to moderate speed Internet and data services from anywhere within the coverage area. There are currently nearly 3 million EDGE/GPRS users in the Grameenphone network. Competition: As at 31 March 2010, Grameenphone had a SIM card market share of 43%. In addition to Grameenphone, there are five other mobile operators in Bangladesh. These operators and their market share according to the BTRC data as at 31 March 2010 are: Banglalink (with a market share of 26%), Robi - previously, Aktel - (with a market share of 19%), Warid (with a market share of 6%), Citycell (with a market share of 4%) and Teletalk (with a market share of 2%). The intense competition between these operators has led to a

significant price decline over the years. In January 2010, the India based operator Bharti Airtel acquired a 70% stake of Warid Telecom. Products offered: Mobile Telephony - Grameenphone was the first operator to introduce the pre-paid mobile phone service in Bangladesh in September 1999. It offers the pre-paid subscription under the name Easy Prepaid which is currently calld "smile prepaid". Besides smile, Grameenphone also offers a youth based mobile to mobile connectivity within Bangladesh named djuice'. Grameenphone also offers postpaid mobile service. xplore Postpaid is the name of its post paid service. Other Services 1. Internet : Grameenphone provides internet service in its coverage area. As it has EDGE/GPRS enabled network, any subscriber can access to internet through this network. Grameenphone was the first mobile operator in Bangladesh to offer EDGE services to its subscribers 2. BillPay : A service to enable users to pay their utility bills (Electricity, Gas etc) through mobile. 3. CellBazaar : Services to enable users sell or buy products through mobile or internet. 4. Various other services like Stock Information, Instant Messaging, SMS Based Alerts/Services, Voice-based Services, Downloads, Music, Cricket Updates, Web SMS, and Mobile Backup etc. Social Initiatives Community Information Centers - Community Information Center (CIC) or GPCIC is aimed at providing internet access and other communications services to rural areas. In February 2006, 26 CICs were established across the country as a pilot project. In this project, Grameenphone provides GSM/EDGE/GPRS infrastructure and technical support and other partners Grameen Telecom Corporation and Society for Economic and Basic Advancement (SEBA), are involved in selecting and training entrepreneurs to run the village centers. The computers in these centers in the pilot project are used by an average of 30 people a day, who pay a small fee to access email or Web pages. These CICs are used for a wide variety of business and personal purposes, from accessing health and agricultural information to using government services to video conferencing with relatives overseas. Grameenphone also trains the entrepreneurs so that they can give people advice on how to set up an e-mail account and best make use of the Internet. CIC project is giving up to 20 million people the chance to use the Internet and e-mail for the first time. Following a successful pilot project, Grameenphone is going to set up approximately 560 centers in communities throughout Bangladesh by the end of 2006. The centers will be located in each Upazila (sub-district) of Bangladesh. As a result, up to 15 villages containing up to 40,000 people will be within reach of each CIC. In this information center, there will be personal computers connected to Grameenphone's

existing GSM mobile network, which has been upgraded with EDGE technology to offer data transfer speeds of up to 16 kilobytes per second. Village phone - With the help of Grameenphone, Grameen Telecom operates the national Village Phone programme, alongside its own parent Grameen Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), acting as the sole provider of telecommunications services to a number of rural areas. Most Village Phone participants are women living in remote areas. Village Phone works as an owner-operated GSM payphone whereby a borrower takes a BDT 12,000 (USD 200) loan from Grameen Bank to subscribe to GP (Grameenphone) and is then trained on how to operate it and how to charge others to use it at a profit. As in September 2006, there are more than 255,000 Village Phones in operation in 55,000 villages around Bangladesh. This program has been replicated also in some other countries including in Uganda and Rwanda in Africa. Awards 1. Grameenphone received the GSM in the Community Award at the global GSM Congress held in Cannes, France in February 2000 for its Village Phone initiative. 2. In 2002, Grameenphone was adjudged the Best Joint Venture Enterprise of the Year at the Bangladesh Business Awards. 3. Grameenphone was presented with the GSM Association's Global Mobile Award for Best use of Mobile for Social and Economic Development' under Bridging the digital divide category at the 3GSM World Congress held in Singapore, in October 2006, for its Community Information Center (CIC) project 4. In the next year, 2007, Grameenphone was again presented with the same award for its `HealthLine Service' at the 3GSM World Congress held in Barcelona, Spain, in February.