The company has so far invested more than BDT 10,700 crore
(USD 1.6 billion) to build the network infrastructure since its inception in
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 is also one the largest taxpayers in the country,
having contributed nearly BDT 7000 crore in direct and indirect taxes to the
Government Exchequer over the years. Of this amount, over BDT 2000 crore was
paid in 2006 alone.
Since its inception in March 1997, 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.
Grameenphone is the first operator to introduce the pre-paid
service in September 1999. It established the first 24-hour Call Center,
introduced value-added services such as VMS, SMS, fax and data transmission
services, international roaming service, WAP, SMS-based push-pull services,
EDGE, personal ring back tone and many other products and services.
The entire Grameenphone network is also EDGE/GPRS enabled,
allowing access to high-speed Internet and data services from anywhere within
the coverage area. There are currently nearly 3 million EDGE/GPRS users in the
Grameenphone network.
Grameenphone nearly doubled its subscriber base during the
initial years while the growth was much faster during the later years. It ended
the inaugural year with 18,000 customers, 30,000 by the end of 1998, 60,000 in
1999, 193,000 in 2000, 471,000 in 2001, 775,000 in 2002, 1.16 million in 2003,
2.4 million in 2004, 5.5 million in 2005, 11.3 million in 2006, and it ended
2007 with 16.5 million customers.
From the very beginning, Grameenphone placed emphasis on
providing good after-sales services. In recent years, the focus has been to
provide after-sales within a short distance from where the customers live.
There are now more than 600 GP Service Desks across the country covering nearly
all upazilas of 61 districts. In addition, there are 72 Grameenphone
Centers in all the divisional cities and they remain open from 8am-7pm every day including all
holidays.
GP has generated direct and indirect employment for a large number of people
over the years. The company presently has more than 5,000 full
and temporary employees. Another 100,000 people are directly dependent on
Grameenphone for their livelihood, working for the Grameenphone dealers,
retailers, scratch card outlets, suppliers, vendors, contractors and others.
In addition, the Village Phone Program, also started in
1997, provides a good income-earning opportunity to more than 210,000 mostly
women Village Phone operators living in rural areas. The Village Phone Program
is a unique initiative to provide universal access to telecommunications
service in remote, rural areas. Administered by Grameen Telecom Corporation, it
enables rural people who normally cannot afford to own a telephone to avail the
service while providing the VP operators an opportunity to earn a living.
The Village Phone initiative was given the "GSM in the
Community" award at the global GSM Congress held in Cannes, France
in February 2000. Grameenphone was also adjudged the Best Joint Venture
Enterprise of the Year at the Bangladesh Business Awards in 2002. Grameenphone
was presented with the GSM Association's Global Mobile Award for ‘Best use of
Mobile for Social and Economic Development' at the 3GSM World Congress held in
Singapore, in October 2006, for its Community Information Center (CIC) project,
and for its HealthLine Service project at the 3GSM World Congress held in
Barcelona, Spain, in February 2007.
Grameenphone considers its employees to be one of its most
important assets. GP has an extensive employee benefit scheme in place
including Gratuity, Provident Fund, Group Insurance, Family Health Insurance,
Transportation Facility, Day Care Centre, Children's Education Support, Higher
Education Support for employees, in-house medical support and other
initiatives.
Grameenphone Corporate Governance
In the fast-paced world of telecommunications, vibrant and
dynamic Corporate Governance practices are an essential ingredient to success.
Grameenphone believes in the continued improvement of corporate governance.
This in turn has led the Company to commit considerable resources and implement
internationally accepted Corporate Standards in its day-to-day operations.
Being a public limited company, the Board of Directors
of Grameenphone have a pivotal role to play in meeting all stakeholders’
interests. The Board of Directors and the Management Team of Grameenphone are
committed to maintaining effective Corporate Governance through a culture of
accountability, transparency, well-understood policies and procedures. The
Board of Directors and the Management Team also persevere to maintain
compliance of all laws of Bangladesh
and all internally documented regulations, policies and procedures.
Grameenphone is a truly transparent company that operates at
the highest levels of integrity and accountability on a global standard.
The
shareholders of Grameenphone contribute their unique, in-depth experience in
both telecommunications and development.
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.
About Telenor
Telenor is emerging as one of the fastest growing providers
of mobile communications services worldwide with ownership interests in 12
mobile operators across Europe and Asia.
Telenor is organised into three business areas; Mobile operations covering 12
countries, and Fixed-line and Broadcast services covering the Nordic region.
Telenor holds 62 per cent of Grameenphone, with Grameen Telecom Corporation
owning the remaining 38 per cent. Telenor has played a pioneering role in
development of cellular communications in Bangladesh.
The Telenor Group
More than 150 million mobile subscribers worldwide
Strong subscription growth, particularly in our Asian
operations
Listed as No.1 on Dow Jones Sustainability Index 2008
Ranked as the world's seventh largest mobile operator
Revenues 2007: NOK 105 billion
Workforce 2007: 35 800 man-years
Listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange, with headquarters in Norway
About Grameen Telecom
Grameen Telecom Corporation, which owns 38% of the shares of
GrameenPhone, is a not-for-profit company and works in close collaboration with
Grameen Bank.The internationally reputed bank for the poor, has the most
extensive rural banking network and expertise in microfinance. It understands
the economic needs of the rural population, in particular the women from the
poorest households.
Grameen Telecom, with the help of Grameen Bank, administers
the Village Phone Program, through which GrameenPhone provides its services to
the fast growing rural customers. Grameen Telecom trains the operators,
supplies them with handsets and handles all service-related issues.
Grameen Bank currently covers more than 67,000 villages
which are serviced by 2121 bank branches all over the countryside. As of may
2006, the bank had 6.33 million borrowers, 97 percent of whom were women.
Grameen Telecom’s objectives are to provide easy access to
GSM cellular services in rural Bangladesh,
creating new opportunities for income generation through self- employment by
providing villagers with access to modern information and communication based
technologies.
Ensuring secured
working environment is an integral part of responsible corporate behavior
Believing in the ethos of corporate social responsibility,
Grameenphone always strives to uphold the standards in all its business
operations. Ensuring secured work place is no exception. In order to minimize
accidents at the workplace and at the project sites, GP regularly undertakes
awareness programs as well as necessary training programs for GP employees and
vendors/suppliers regarding various Health, Safety and Environment issues.
Though the employees of our vendors are not directly employed by us, through
our contractual agreement with the vendors, we aim to ensure safe and secured
working condition for their employees when they are working for us. However, we
are aware that this is a continuous process and there are always opportunities
to raise the collective performance level with respect to health and safety
standards. Due to our scale of operations dispersed across the country
while the local vendors/suppliers having low awareness on standard HSE
practices, we consistently endeavor to address this issue through necessary
phase-by-phase capacity building exercises.
Unfortunately some recent accidents occurring in our work place
made us more concerned and alert to ensure that required standards are adhered
to, especially by our vendors. On a few of these occasions, the victims, mostly
employees of our vendors, regrettably succumbed to his/her injuries. Though
safety measures were in place, while these accidents occurred, they had proved
to be inadequate to prevent these accidents from happening. In these accidents,
3 vendor workers died falling to the ground from roof-top or tower while 2
other died due to electrocution while erecting billboard, 1 due to a fall into
an acid tub in vendor’s factory premise, 1 from snake bite and another one from
a heart attack while sleeping. On other occasions, a young girl died of electrocution
from a wire in the fence of a storage area adjacent to a construction site
while a 70-year old woman died as she was hit by a GP vehicle on Mymensingh
highway.
In light of these recent unfortunate incidents, Grameenphone has
commissioned a team having the Head of HSE as the team leader. The team will
directly report to the CEO on the following immediate tasks which include:
1. Inspections at some factory premises to instantly show cause
if any deviation is found from the standard or agreement.
2. Educate the vendors and suppliers on Health, Safety and
Environmental (HSE) issues. The aim is to make the vendors and the suppliers
capable enough by themselves to follow and practice HSE and corporate
responsibilities in their daily activities. The focus will be targeted at the
following areas:
a. Setup a more Comprehensive Guideline and enhance
competence of the vendor on HSE compliance.
b. Benchmark setting on safe working condition including ILO and
international best-practices and Standard Operation Procedure (SOP).
c. Regular audit of vendors/suppliers.
Telenor has extended its cooperation with Det Norske Veritas (DNV) as an
advisor to perform mapping and review of HSE standards at relevant supplier in
markets where Telenor has operations. DNV has already performed an independent
assessment on working conditions and production standards at the relevant
suppliers' facilities to provide necessary counsel to GP.
November 28, 1996
Grameenphone was offered a cellular license in Bangladesh by
the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications
March 26, 1997
Grameenphone launched its service on the Independence Day of
Bangladesh
November 5, 2006
After almost 10 years of operation, Grameenphone has over 10
million subscribers
September 20, 2007
Grameenphone announces 15 million subscribers.
Grameenphone is now the leading telecommunications service
provider in the country with more than 20 million subscribers as of June 2008.
Presently, there are about 30 million telephone users in the country, of which,
a little over one million are fixed-phone users and the rest mobile phone
subscribers.
Starting its operations on March
26, 1997, the Independence Day of Bangladesh, Grameenphone has come
a long way. It is a joint venture enterprise between Telenor (62%), the largest
telecommunications service provider in Norway with mobile phone operations in
12 other countries, and Grameen Telecom Corporation (38%), a non-profit sister
concern of the internationally acclaimed micro-credit pioneer Grameen Bank.
Over the years, Grameenphone has always been a pioneer in introducing new
products and services in the local market. GP was the first company to
introduce GSM technology in Bangladesh
when it launched its services in March 1997.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.
Grameenphone Community Information Center
The Grameenphone
Community Information
Center is a shared
premise where rural people may access a wide-range of state of art services
such as Internet, voice communications, video conferencing and other
information services.
Set up with technical assistance from the GSM Association,
Grameenphone Community Information Centers (GPCICs) are equipped with the
minimum of a computer, a printer, a scanner, a webcam and an EDGE-enabled
modem, to access the Internet using Grameenphone’s nation-wide EDGE
connectivity.
The pilot project started in February 2006 with 16 CICs; today
the project has become a massive operation with over 500 CICs operational in
nearly 450 Upzilla’s. The short-term plan of this initiative is to establish at
least one CIC in each of the 462 Upazilla’s. In the long-run Grameenphone plans
to increase the number of CICs substantially so that very CIC can support the
information needs of four adjacent villages.
GPCICs are designed to be run independently as small businesses
by local entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurs are trained and are provided with
continuous support from Grameenphone. To help the entrepreneurs earn a living,
Community Information Centers also provide other Grameenphone services, such as
payphones (again using Grameenphone's mobile network) and electronic recharges
(Flexi load) for prepaid and postpaid mobile accounts.
This initiative by Grameenphone is in line with the company’s objective to
serve local community needs.
These include –
· Bridging
the “digital divide” by providing information access to rural people
· Alleviating
poverty
· Educating
the underserved and underprivileged on information-based services
· Building
local entrepreneurships and improving capacity
· Creating
employment opportunities for the unemployed youth
This initiative is part of Grameenphone’s drive to do something
good for the rural community, which is a major portion of the population of the
country.
CICs are a unique business model that has won appreciation from the International
community, such as from the Washington Post, from UNDP, as well as the
blessings of several International bodies like Katalyst and the GSMA.
The services available in the GPCICs include:
· Internet
surfing and e-mailing
· Content
on health, agriculture, etc.
· Locally
relevant customized and open content
· Chatting
with Voice, Picture
· Video
conferencing
· Typing
· Scanning,
Printing
· Commercial
Mobile Call
· E-governance
services
· GP
value added services such as FlexiLoad, Ring tones downloading etc.
· E-Fax
· CD
Writing
· Telemedicine
services (to be introduced)
· Multimedia
education for children (Meena Cartoon, courtesy of UNDP)
In order to achieve its vision, Grameenphone has united with different
organizations and institutions, in various categories, as strategic partners.
The rollout partners of Grameenphone in this initiative are Grameen Telecom,
Society for Economic and Basic Advancement (SEBA), and Eagle, nationwide, and
Kalikapur Daridro Kallan Sangsta (KDKS), Socio-Economic Development Association
(SEDA), Karmakutir, Goriber Asroy, and SSTD Communication, divisionally. All of
these organizations are Non-Governmental Developmental organizations working
with the rural populace for the development of the individual and the
community.
Noakhali Web, an on-line newspaper for the greater Noakhali and
Community Portal; and Anovatec, a Health Service Provider are also strategic
partners of Grameenphone on the CIC project.
In addition, Grameenphone is working directly with international
organizations like KATALYST and GSMA to make the initiative successful.
Frequent programs and discussions are also held with UN bodies, such as UNDP,
UNICEF and UNESCO, who share the common goal of making a significant
contribution for the betterment of rural the mass.
This is an enormous endeavor undertaken by Grameenphone; and one
that is possible to complete by Grameenphone alone. This is initiative that
requires the cooperation and blessings of all governmental as well as other
semi-governmental and private bodies and the support of the people from all
sphere of life in Bangladesh.