Strong indicators in favour of 4G, LTE

Airtel Bangladesh Ltd has planned to cover all the districts of Bangladesh under  3G blanket within 2016.  
"Presently we have established 3G network in 21 districts and within 2016, we will cover the whole country since our expansion plan fits in strongly with the country's vision of "Digital Bangladesh," managing director & CEO of Airtel Bangladesh Ltd PD Sarma told The FE in an interview recently.
Regarding the readiness of Airtel to switch over to 4G, the top executive of the company said in developing countries, voice revenues are likely to continue to expand but data has become more important.
In Bangladesh the voice market is still growing but the growth rate of data is significantly higher. Bangladesh has very high ratio of youth telecom consumer base which indicates the growth rate of data will continue to be very high.
This market has already showed its readiness for faster data services as total 3G users have gone past 20 million within this short timeframe.
"These, I believe, are strong indicators to suggest that the market is ready to 4G and LTE (long-term evolution). We are present in 20 countries across the globe and number 4 in terms of subscribers in the world and number 2 in Africa. We have already offered 4G and LTE solutions in India as well as in some of the African market. These experiences will certainly become helpful when 4G implementation will be done here and we hope it will give us a significant edge over our competitors," Mr Sarma asserted.
He said Airtel has been operating in Bangladesh market for only 4 years now. In terms of total number of consumers, Airtel is positioned in number 4.
"However having a higher ratio of youth among our consumers, the usage of data is significantly high," Mr Sarma said.
"The mobile VAS market has been growing at an exponential rate and we have taken many initiatives including mobile TV, music downloading, missed call alert, M-commerce, utility services etc. There are few other interesting and exciting projects in the pipeline which are all geared towards making peoples' life easier and simpler, resulting in significant customer growth," Mr Sarma explained.
Assessing the contribution of Airtel in the growing telco market of Bangladesh, he said the Bangladesh telecommunication sector has seen a tremendous growth. This growth in turn has set off a transformative impact on the economy in terms of aggregate investment.
"Airtel has been optimistic about the growing market of Bangladesh from the very beginning and we have tried to contribute to that growth by ensuring more innovative products and services for the market. As you know the market in Bangladesh is quite mature and at the same time it's quite cluttered with offers and promotion from the operators".
"I believe, at this point in time the customers are desperate to see simple and transparent plans from the operators. The customers want a hassle-free and uncomplicated life at least where  their mobile plans are concerned and we believe that our plans are simple and transparent enough which not only leads to great contribution toward the telecommunication market of Bangladesh but also free up the customers and their valuable time which can be better utilised in other sectors."
Mentioning the competitive edges of Airtel, he said to attain competitive edge one needs to have product that fulfills the need and desire of the consumer. The telecom customers had been offered hundreds of various packages with increasingly higher complexity level. But what the consumers require is a simple, easy to understand plan.
Airtel Bangladesh Limited came up with the simplest plan "ShobaiEk" & "ShobaiFnF" to cater to this need. The transparency and simplicity of the plan is what gives us the edge over the competitors. Essentially life-long validity, data services alongside the 1 paisa/sec to all operators day and night features of the package has managed to fulfill the need of package simplicity requirement of the consumers.The unlimited speed of 3G data speed is another big edge that we have over our competitors.
AirtelBuzz is the official Facebook page of Airtel Bangladesh Limited with more than 2.4 million fan base who we call Airtel Buzzers. This has proven to be the most engaging social media page in Bangladesh and recently we have been awarded as number 1 Smart Storyteller by Socialbakers, beating all of local and foreign competitors across the globe.
"We have also been nominated for the prestigious Mashies award," the Airtel CEO said.
Airtel also launched Online Airtel Experience Centre, the first ever virtual experience store from where our valued customers can take all airtel's services anytime and anywhere. It provides the customers with a unique opportunity to access self-care services over digital space and internet. At the same time it also facilitates Airtel in creating awareness and increase knowledge level of customers through visual aid. Online Airtel Experience Centre is a 3D animated virtual centre which can be accessed by the customer through our commercial website (www.bd.airtel.com).
"We have Airtel App that does the same thing on mobile phone. This is an android-based service and will be available on iOs and Windows platform soon."
Commenting on the future outlook of Airtel, he said by the next 10 years Airtel should be the most preferred telecom operators in the country.
"We have established excellent service quality for our valued customers.In years to come, we will keep on bringing innovative products and services for our valued customers to ensure growth and healthy retention."
Regarding the financial inclusion through mobile network, he said Airtel is the first telecom operator to introduce mobile banking for its consumers in Bangladesh.
"We have already tied up with some of the leading mobile financial services such as DBBL, bKash, FSIBL's SureCash, UCash etc. providing their facilities as VAS for our customers, as well as training our employees through various employee camps to train them on how to effectively use these services, displaying practically how these services can add value to their lives."
"We are proactively exploring more opportunities in this field to enhance our customer experience," the Airtel CEO added.

[email protected]