Role of Robi in telecommunication industry of Bangladesh

Abstract

Robi Axiata Limited is one of the leading multinational organizations and a big player in telecommunication industry of Bangladesh. Robi started its business in 1997 with a brand name Aktel and it was changed to Robi in 1997. It is a joint venture company of Axiata Limited (70%), Malaysia and NTT DoCoMo, Japan. I was employed in this leading MNC of Bangladesh for three months for the purpose of Advertisement and Promotional activities data analysis. I was employed in Business Partner unit under Finance Division. My team name was sales and promotion. Its task is to deal with the vendors involved with Robi for advertisement and promotional activity purpose. The great thing to work is Robi is that I have learned many things regarding the role of Robi Axiata Limited in telecom industry of Bangladesh. There are two things that are considered to identify the role of any cellular operator in Bangladesh. One is Product and VAS quality and network quality. First of all it is important to know the condition of the industry. In Bangladesh there are three major competitors in telecom industry. Those are Grameenphone (Market Leader), Robi and Banglalink. These three are controlling ninety percent of the total market share where Grameenphone is in the first position regarding market share. Banglalink and Robi are in second and third position. In terms of Grameenphone, Robi and Banglalink is in first, second and third position. However if we see the update regarding number of subscriber increase for the month of August, 2012 by BTCL, Robi is in first position and they are almost double ahead than the market leader Grameenphone. It has been possible because they have the strength in the side of low call rate, network quality and better product and services. However Grameenphone has a problem of high call rate. That may cost the position of market leader for Grameenphone with in 5 or 6 years and Robi can be a great threat for them. Banglalink and Robi call rate is almost same but the network quality of Robi is far better than Banglalink. For that reason active user of Robi is higher than Banglalink. So they need to improve a lot regarding network quality if they want to alive in the competition. The other three such as Airtel, Citycell and Teletalk needs to improve a lot regarding management, employee, call rate and network quality if they want to give a real competition to Grameenphone, Robi and Banglalink. Robi offers variety of products under its prepaid and postpaid categories. By analyzing the product and services it has been found that maximum subscribers are in prepaid category. The main reasons are the product variety under prepaid category, package shifting advantage (only Robi provides it), no bill payment problem, call rate and more bonus facilities. Robi also offers variety of unique VASs for its subscribers like Ibadot portal, Robi Jibon Bima, BBC Janala and DJ & Party schedule etc. Robi has a strong cellular network base in Bangladesh. They are covering in 61 districts out of 64 of the whole country. It indicates 95 percent of the whole nation equally highest with Grameenphone. So they have the capacity to provide service to the highest number of people in Bangladesh. Robi has the most high-tech European based GSM technology. To ensure the network strength for its subscribers, Robi has engaged more than 18,600 network tower all over the country. If Robi continue its Role this way, soon they will be the market leader.