Trade
5 years ago

MNP service: GP losing out to Robi

Picture used for illustrative purpose
Picture used for illustrative purpose

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Telecom giant Grameenphone is losing the highest number of customers through the roll-out of mobile number portability (MNP) service.

Robi, the nearest competitor of the mobile operator, is emerging as the biggest gainer.

The MNP, a system that enables a subscriber to change operator without changing their number, was introduced in the country on October 01 last year.

According to the latest figures supplied by the telecom regulator on Tuesday, 106,343 users have so far successfully switched operators using the service.

An analysis of the figures, however, found that GP has witnessed the largest outbound migration of subscribers through the service.

As many as 49,658 former GP subscribers have switched to other operators in last three months.

Meanwhile, a total of 10,491 subscribers have moved to GP during the same period, showed the data of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission.

On the other hand, 72,005 GP subscribers have moved to Robi from other operators while 20,406 subscribers have switched from Robi.

This means GP, the largest local operator in terms of subscribers, has lost more than 39,000 customers in first three months of the MNP roll-out.

Its nearest rival Robi gained over 51,000 customers through the system during the period under review.

More notably, a total of 40,123 subscribers (almost 55 per cent of the new Robi subscribers) have come from GP, meaning Robi is clearly gaining at the cost of GP.

At the end of December 2018, the Norwegian telecom giant had 72.732 million customers while Robi had 46.886 million customers.

Insiders blamed it on GP's 'declining quality of service' like high frequency of call drops in its network.

Despite having the largest number of subscribers, they observed, GP's spectrum remains relatively inadequate.

This puts an extra pressure on GP network and leads to higher numbers of call drops, the insiders pointed out.

GP now serves around 72.3 million customers with 37 MHz spectrum, Robi around 47 million with 36.4 MHz and Banglalink around 33.5 million with 30.6 MHz.

The BTRC study earlier showed that there had been a total of 1.03 billion call drops through GP network between September 2017 and September 2018.

Meanwhile, there had been a total of 761.8 million call drops through Robi network and 36.54 million Banglalink network during the same period.

Industry insiders said before the introduction of uniform call rate, GP users had an additional advantage as making calls within the same network was cheaper.

However, since the introduction of the rate in August 2018, many GP subscribers are now opting for other operators in the absence of that advantage, they added.

When asked, GP Head of Communications Sayed Talat Kamal said, "We respect customers' freedom of choice through MNP and are equally happy to welcome new customers to our strong network."

Meanwhile, Robi officials said their growingly better service than rivals is the main reason they are getting more subscribers through MNP than anyone else.

"Our wider 4G coverage, clarity and quality of calls and relatively faster internet speed mean that customers are now switching to Robi," said Shahed Alam, head of regulatory affairs of Robi.

Meanwhile, Banglalink, the third largest operator, has gained 22,325 subscribers through MNP and lost 34,256.

According to the latest figures from the regulatory, there were a total of 156.989 million subscribers in the country at the end of December 2018.

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