Things looking up for Banglalink

Banglalink, once the most spirited operator in the market, seems to have gotten a spring back in its step in 2020 after two consecutive quarters of underwhelming performance.

In the first quarter of this year, the country's third largest operator reported a 3.75 per cent year-on-year growth in revenue thanks to 4G, according to its parent company VEON's quarterly report.

Its revenue of Tk 1,163 crore was the highest after it purchased additional spectrum in February 2018 and invested in 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.

During the quarter, Banglalink's data customers increased 7.8 per cent year-on-year and its data revenue a whopping 18.5 per cent to Tk 265.78 crore.

Its data usage growth between January and March was up 42.8 per cent year-on-year to 1,713 MB per user per month.

And the average earning per user every month increased to Tk 113 from Tk 109 in the previous quarter, which was its lowest yet.

At the end of March, Banglalink's 4G network covered 52 per cent of the population, 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 support its customers during the general shutdown, Banglalink is providing some of its services free of charge and has improved access to digital reload channels.

On top of ensuring uninterrupted telecommunication services to their customers, Banglalink has also been active with various social initiatives that are beneficial to the people of Bangladesh during this difficult time, Aas said.

The social initiatives include relief distribution among the population in need, free e-learning facility for primary school students and toll-free hotlines to coronavirus testing centres.

The pandemic has exposed both the 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 current crisis is posing another challenge to our business' sustainability. Nevertheless, we do hope to overcome this situation soon and come out stronger," Aas added.