| Type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Telecommunication |
| Founded | November, 1996[1] |
| Headquarters | Tiger House, House # SW(H)04, Gulshan Avenue, Gulshan Model Town, Dhaka, Bangladesh |
| Area served | 64 districts |
| Key people | [2], MD and CEO |
| Products | Telephony, GPRS |
| Revenue | US$288 million (2008), 49.2% from 2007[2] |
| Parent | Orascom Telecom |
| Website | www.banglalinkgsm.com |
Banglalink (Bengali: বাংলালিংক), is the second largest cellular service provider in Bangladesh after Grameenphone. As of November, 2009, Banglalink has a subscriber base of 12.99 million.[3] It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Orascom Telecom.
Banglalink had 1.03 million connections until December, 2005. The number of Banglalink users increased by 257 per cent[4] and stood at 3.64 million at the end of 2006, making it the fastest growing operator in the world of that year. In August, 2006, Banglalink became the first company to provide free incoming calls from BTTB for both postpaid and prepaid connections. On August 20, 2008, Banglalink got past the landmark of 10 million subscriber base.[5]
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Sheba Telecom(PVT Ltd)-after talking lots- finally was granted license in 1989[6] to operate in the rural areas of 199 upazilas. Later it obtained GSM license in 1996 to extend its business to cellular mobile, radio telephone services. It launched operation in the last quarter of 1997 as a Bangladesh-Malaysia joint venture.
In July, 2004, it was reported that Egypt based Orascom Telecom is set to purchase the Malaysian stakes in Sheba Telecom through a hush-hush deal, as Sheba had failed to tap the business potentials in Bangladesh mainly due to a chronic feud between its Malaysian and Bangladeshi partners. An agreement was reached with Orascom worth US$25 million was finalized in secret. The pact has been kept secret for legal reasons, considering financial fallout and because of the feud.
The main reason for the undercover dealing was the joint venture agreement between the Bangladeshi and the Malaysian partners, which dictates that if any party sells its Sheba shares, the other party will enjoy the first right to buy that.
Integrated Services Ltd. (ISL), the Bangladeshi partner, was being ‘officially’ shown as purchasing the shares held by Technology Resources Industries (TRI) of Malaysia for $15 million. ISL then paid another $10 million to Standard Chartered Bank to settle Sheba's liabilities.
In September, 2004, Orascom Telecom Holdings purchased 100% of the shares of Sheba Telecom (Pvt.) Limited (“Sheba”). It was acquired for US$60 million. Sheba had a base of 59,000 users, of whom 49,000 were regular when it was sold.[7] Afterward it was re-branded and launched its services under the “Banglalink” brand on February 10, 2005. Banglalink’s license is a nationwide 15-year GSM license and will expire in November, 2011.
In March, 2008, Sheba Telecom (Pvt.) Limited changed its name as Orascom Telecom Bangladesh Limited, matching its parent company name.[8]
Banglalink uses the following numbering scheme:
+880 19 N1N2N3N4N5N6N7N8
Where, 880 is the ISD code for Bangladesh and is needed only in case of dialing from outside Bangladesh.
19 is the access code for Banglalink as allocated by the Government of Bangladesh. Omitting +880 will require using 0 in place of it instead to represent local call, hence 019 is the general access code.
N1N2N3N4N5N6N7N8 is the subscriber number.
Banglalink currently offers two prepaid plans. All the prepaid plans come in two phases—Standard (T&T incoming and outgoing with NWD and ISD) and M2M. All connections provide GPRS to subscribers.
Former Packages:
Currently there are three postpaid plans from Banglalink for its tail customers. These packages are known as enterprise personal, which is a subset of much larger Banglalink enterprise. All packages come with T&T local, NWD, ISD and e-ISD connectivity.
Former Packages:
Banglalink enterprise[10] offers a wide range of products and services to suit the needs of the business community. Companies under the enterprise package are provided with a dedicated enterprise relationship manager who provides them with personalized customer care round the clock. Other benefits of enterprise include customized packages with attractive call charges and connection price, enterprise SMS broadcast, enterprise short code, international roaming, missed call alerts, free voice mail retrieval, fax and data service, call conferencing, special offer for family members and many more. It was first launched in December, 2006. The current packages are:
Prior to the launch of Banglalink enterprise, Banglalink served the business clientele through a similar platform named Banglalink professional.
Banglalink delivers customer care using its call centers and customer care networks. Currently Banglalink provides customer care services to its clients through:
In October, 2007, BTRC fined Banglalink Tk. 1.25 billion for its involvement in illegal VoIP or call termination business.[13] The then BTRC chairman major general (retd.) Manzurul Alam confirmed Banglalink's involvement in the illegal trade. Banglalink, however, in a statement said the company has agreed to make a one time fixed payment of Tk. 1.25 billion to the government as compensation for its loss in revenues.
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