By Mazharul Anwar Khan

DHAKA, Oct 25, 2024 (BSS) – Telecom experts have opined that the state-owned mobile phone operator Teletalk could manage to breathe life into data service, innovative solutions and new business ideas from its crumble position.

Sufficient investment, professionalism, dynamic board of directors, good governance and accountability are crucial for this job, they said.

The experts suggested the government to consider joint-venture (JV) or merger of Teletalk with another state-owned Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL), which has been offering PSTN along with other services.

They, however, acknowledged that the Teletalk can’t reach desired goal without massive investment as multinational players are doing so in line with market requirements.     

At present, Teletalk stands at the worst position among the four mobile phone operators in Bangladesh.

According to available statistics, over 192.43 million people are using mobile phones, where Teletalk owns only 6.53 millions customers although market leader Grameenphone has 85.08 millions subscribers followed by Robi 58.36 million and Banglalink 42.47 million.

Talking to BSS on Thursday, Mahtab Uddin Ahmed, former chief executive officer (CEO) of Robi Axiata limited, has said data services and innovative solutions could be a boost for Teletalk going beyond voice.

“Since Teletalk is not in any race, they can drive with data because the future depends on it,” he said adding, “Teletalk can offer a bundle with handset and data-based voice along with other innovative ideas.”

To this end, he referred to Bharti AirTel’s triple play services — phone, internet and cable TV, saying Teletalk could contemplate such types of ideas.

“Innovative thinking is a must as no traditional policy will work now. Trying to play the market in a traditional way, it will be nothing but a waste of money,” he added.

On the other hand, government could consider joint venture or merger of Teletalk with BTCL as it has ownership in different layers (different categories of licenses such as NTTN, IIG), said Mahtab, who was also President of Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (AMTOB) earlier.

He said, “Through the joint venture or merger, Teletalk would get access to BTCL’s own fiber, which could encourage foreign investment as well,” adding, “Government can do it because it will benefit common and under-privileged people. I think it would be a good thing if such a strategy is worked out.”

Replying to a query about the differences in terms of operation between Robi and Teletalk, Mahtab Uddin Ahmed said “It’s not possible for a CEO to work in Teletalk in the way he can in a private operator as multinational companies define authority and empower him with funds.”

He continued, “This is not possible in Bangladesh, especially in government entities as everyone from the minister or the ministry officials get involved in decision making.”

“However, a multinational entity isn’t like that, and in Robi or others, it has the support of the board of directors. The execution structure and governance is very strong here,” he went on.

Echoing Mahtab, former Secretary General of AMTOB Brig. Gen. S M Farhad (Retd.) told BSS that in Teletalk, the officials who work there either are unable to work or not doing the work as they should under any circumstances.

“The Board of Teletalk and its managing director with all employees have to be made accountable strictly for their jobs. It couldn’t go ahead until it is run like other government offices,” he said.

SM Farhad urged the government to consider handing Teletalk to any local private entity, saying Teletalk’s one of the major constraints is investment as it can’t invest like any multinational organization.

“Investment through any local investor could wipe out the limitations and upgrade infrastructure of Teletalk easily, and it could bring the opportunity to come back for Teletalk,” he said.

Moreover, many initiatives of Teletalk can't go ahead or are not timely implemented due to bureaucratic processes in its board, said Farhad, adding Teletalk will not do anything without investment.       

Former Managing Director of BTCL Dr Md Rafiqul Matin, who was also a director in Teletalk board earlier, said good governance along with a dynamic board is inevitable for vibrant Teletalk.

Teletalk debuted amid much fanfare in December 2004 and generated a huge interest among the public in the early days by providing cost-effective packages. There was a time when market leader Grameenphone charged Taka 6 per minute for voice calls whereas Teletalk set the rate at Taka 4.

Talking to BSS, Teletalk Managing Director (Additional Charge) Nurul Mabud Chowdhury said that fund constraints are their main problem, which back-pulling Teletalk in every way.

“We didn’t have the investment like other private operators,” he said, mentioning that so far they have been able to invest only Taka around 5,000 crore for infrastructure and its up-gradation while the amount of market leader Grameenphone is approximately 10 times higher than it and Robi made nearly eight times more.

Replying to a query, Nurul Mabud said they have taken a new scheme to install another 10,000 base transceiver stations (BTSs), network towers, as soon as possible which would enable them to offer better services.

At present Teletalk owns a total of 5,600 BTSs while Grameenphone has 21,500, Robi has 18,000 and Banglalink has over 16,000 BTSs.