GP's new CEO promises more affordable services
Country's total cellphone subscription base to reach 50m in 3 years
Outgoing CEO of Grameenphone Ltd Erik Aas (L) talks to a group of journalists in Dhaka yesterday, while his successor Anders Jensen looks on. Photo: STAR
Grameenphone's new chief executive officer (CEO) has promised that his company will provide more affordable services for its customers in near future.
"I think being able to communicate is very close to human rights and it should be done at a price level people can afford, this is my promise to the Grameenphone customers in Bangladesh," said Anders Jensen, who is scheduled to take over as the CEO of the private mobile service provider tomorrow.
He, however, felt it necessary to increase capacity and bandwidth to maintain his promise.
Meanwhile, the outgoing CEO, Erik Aas described the last three years of Grameenphone as a success story.
Jensen and Aas were talking to a group of journalists in Dhaka yesterday.
Enormous hard work, reduced tariff and connecting more people within the company's network helped it become the country's top telecoms company, Aas said.
When his predecessor pointed to the GP's outstanding achievement in a span of three years of reaching its subscriber base from just two million to 15milion, Jensen expressed his high expectation of GP's being the holder of lion's share of the total subscriber base that might reach 50 million in the next two or three years.
Jensen said, "If you look at the crystal ball, in the next two or three years, I would expect the country will have approximately 45 million to 50 million mobile phone customers, which is a huge number, huge opportunities and could be huge challenges to maintain the service level in terms of distribution network, coverage and capacity".
So, coming to Bangladesh is a great opportunity to learn more about one of the most potential telecommunication markets of the world, said Jensen, who served telecommunication sectors in different parts of the globe for the last 10 years.
Dwelling on GP's success, Erik Aas said GP wanted to provide mobile telephony, something more than only a phone call. Keeping that in mind, GP introduced EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) in mid-2005 and the company kept improving and increasing EDGE capacity in the network.
"Now we have three million customers of our internet service," he said.
Aas believes that reduction in handset prices is very much significant to afford mobile phone as purchasing a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card is not expensive anymore in Bangladesh.
Aas joined GP in October 2004. Prior to the expiry of his three-year contract as the CEO, he informed the GP Board of Directors that he would not extend his contract.
According to GP, Aas will join a new telecom company in Indonesia.
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