Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876, establishing the first means of electrical communication. In Bangladesh, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) regulates the telecommunications sector and oversees five major carriers: Grameenphone is the current market leader with 45.2% market share. Robi is the market challenger with 30.1% market share. Banglalink is the market follower with 22.2% market share. Teletalk has a niche market position with 2.5% market share. The mobile sector contributes significantly to Bangladesh's economy and employment.

1. (ISTIUQ AHMED, JU EMBA)
Introduction
“Watson, come here: I want you.” This was the first message ever transmitted from one place to
another, through a device called telephone. American genius, Alexander Graham Bell (1847-
1922) along with his assistant Thomas Watson invented the device. It was March 10, 1876, an
important day for human civilization, the first step towards developing means of communication.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) an independent Regulatory
Commission established under the Bangladesh Telecommunication Act, 2001, (Act no18 of
2001) published by the parliament in the Bangladesh Gazette extraordinary in new on April 16,
2001. BTRC started his journey from 31st January 2002 to conduct the activities of the said act.
With an initiation of its activates, necessary authority, responsibilities and related concern of the
ministry of posts and Telecommunications were vested on to BTRC
Objective of the study
To have a very practical idea and over viewing the telecommunication sector focusing on
constructing hypothetical market structure of telecommunication industry in Bangladesh. Also
find out the market leader, market challenger, market nicheres and market follower of the
telecommunication industry in Bangladesh.
Limitation
1. Difficulty in accessing latest data of internal operations.
2. It is difficult to provide customer related information regarding their service
3. To collect the secret information was very difficult for one because of the excessive
nature of confidential maintained by the officials
4. Lacking of primary information
Total telecommunications companies of Bangladesh
Banglalink:
Banglalink Digital Communications Ltd. (previously Orascom Telecom Bangladesh
Ltd.) is the third largest cellular service provider in Bangladesh. It is fully owned by Telecom
Ventures Ltd. (previously Orascom Telecom Ventures Ltd.) of Malta, which is a 100% owned
subsidiary of Global Telecom Holding which is in turn a subsidiary of the Dutch holding
company VEON.
BTCL:
BTCL or Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited is the largest
telecommunications company in Bangladesh. The company was founded as the Bangladesh

2. Telegraph & Telephone Board (BTTB) following Bangladesh's independence in 1971. On July
1, 2008 the BTTB became a public limited company and was renamed as BTCL. The
Bangladesh government initially owned all BTCL shares, but stated it would sell the shares to
the public the following year. The value of BTCL is estimated to be at ৳15,000 crore (৳150
billion). BTCL has a total of 12,636 officials and staff.
Grameenphone:
Grameenphone widely abbreviated as GP, is the leading telecommunications
service provider in Bangladesh, with more than 74 million subscribers and 46.3% subscriber
market share (as of January 2019). It is a joint venture between Telenor and Grameen Telecom
Corporation. Telenor, a telecommunication company from Norway, owns a 55.8% share of
Grameenphone, Grameen Telecom owns 34.2% and the remaining 10% is publicly held.
Grameenphone was the first company to introduce GSM technology.
Robi:
Robi Axiata Limited, DBA Robi is the second largest mobile network operator in
Bangladesh. It is a joint venture between Axiata Group Berhad of Malaysia, Bharti Airtel
Limited of India. Axiata holds 68.7% controlling stake in the entity, Bharti holds the remaining
31.3%
TeleTalk:
Teletalk Bangladesh Limited is the only state-owned GSM, 3G, LTE based mobile
phone operator in Bangladesh that started operating in 2004. As on September 31, 2019, Teletalk
has a subscriber base of 4.527 million.
Overview
The mobile ecosystem contributed 6.2% or around $13 billion economic value to the GDP of
Bangladesh in 2015. This figure is inclusive of the direct economic impact of mobile operators
and the broader ecosystem as well as the indirect impact and the productivity increase brought
about by the use of mobile technologies.
The mobile ecosystem also provided both formal and informal employment to over 760,000
people in Bangladesh. It made a significant contribution to the funding of public sector activity,
exceeding $2 billion in 2015. More than 30% of the jobs were created directly in the ecosystem,
while the rest were generated indirectly in other sectors as a result of the consumption of inputs
generated by the mobile sector.
At the end of 2017, Bangladesh became the fifth largest mobile market in the Asia Pacific and
ninth largest in the world, with 85 million unique mobile subscribers. Subscribers owned an
average 1.7 SIM cards amounting to a total 145 million connections and representing
connections penetration of 87%.
Growth Forecast

3. The industry started experiencing rapid growth in terms of number of subscribers and unique
subscribers during mid 2000s and as the price of mobile devices and call rate decreased, the
number of unique subscribers increased.
Market Share
The mobile market of Bangladesh underwent its first major in-country consolidation in 2016,
following the merger of Robi (Axiata) with Airtel (Bharti Airtel), which created the
second largest operator by number of connections. At the end of end of 2017, Grameenphone
held a 46% share of total connections, followed by Robi (28%), Banglalink (23%) and Teletalk
(3%). CDMA-based Citycell (Pacific Bangladesh) had effectively been closed since final quarter
of 2016; the BTRC suspended its operating license due to nonpayment of dues.
Hypothetical Market Structure
Market Leader
With 45.2% market share, Grameenphone is the current market leader.

4. Market Challenger
With 30.1% market share, Robi is the current market challenger.
Market Follower
With 22.2% market share, Banglalink is the current market follower.
Market Niche
With 2.5% market share Teletalk is the market niche.