GP’s revenue drops 12%

Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Committee (BTRC) has cancelled the license of the country’s first cellular corporation Citycell. Even though the license for 2G mobile phones was set to expire on November 10, 2026, the firm was notified of this decision via mail on Wednesday.

Citycell owes more than 218 crores to BTRC. As a result, the business is required to provide indemnification in the form of a late fee, which would apply until the delayed repayment is made. The Posts and Telecommunications Division was kindly requested to approve the BTRC’s proposal to cancel the license at the end of January 2022.

BTRC Chairman Shyam Sunder Sikder said that they have sued Citycell on the basis of the default in both civil and criminal court. They also have another thing coming if they believe they can avoid paying back the money and believe the punishment only involves having their license suspended.

Source for more insights:

The Business Post

Bangladesh’s telecommunication infrastructure, especially the mobile phone industry, has attracted the interest of Malaysian company “REDtone,” a top provider of integrated telecommunications and digital infrastructure services for businesses. A press release stated that on Sunday, a four-person company delegation led by ‘REDtone’ Group CEO Lau Bik Soon paid a courtesy call on Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar at his office at the Secretariat in Dhaka.

The minister identified the telecommunications industry in Bangladesh as a priority area for investment and asserted that digital connectivity is both the cornerstone and the main route of digital technology. He also gave the group the assurance that he would offer full assistance in the execution of any initiative taken by Malaysia for the quick growth of its telecommunications industry.

During the meeting, Lau Bik Soon showed his interest in investing in Bangladesh, the release added.

Source for more insights:

The Daily Observer

OPPO has recently announced the OPPO Reno 8 T, which features a fibreglass-leather stitch design, 48-month fluency protection, a certified SGS eye care display, Color OS 13, a 90 Hz refresh rate, and a 5000 mAh battery with 33 W SUPERVOOC.

The smartphone has a 100 MP portrait camera, a 40x micro lens, a 2 MP depth camera, a 32 MP front camera, and capabilities including bokeh flare portrait, selfie HDR, and AI portrait retouching.

Source for more details:

The Daily Star

The grand finale round of Robi’s flagship digital entrepreneurship competition, r-ventures 3.0, took place on March 5 and eight start-ups were promised financing totaling more than Tk 8 crore.

According to a press statement from Robi Axiata Ltd., RedDot Digital Ltd, a Robi Axiata Ltd. subsidiary and sponsor of the r-ventures private equity fund, invested more than Tk 2 crore in four digital start-ups. At the same time, four start-ups would get Tk 3.5 crore from SBK Tech Ventures and angel investor Kaniz Almas Khan. Startup Bangladesh Ltd, the ICT Division’s venture capital fund, also promised to invest Tk 2.5 crore in the start-ups. The state minister also disclosed that the ICT Division would give Tk 10 lakh to each of the top 11 teams in the tournament.

Eleven digital start-ups participated in the Grand Finale, which was held in the Hotel Sheraton Dhaka in the capital after a thorough screening process.

Source for more insights:

The Daily Star

Banglalink and Grameenphone retained their top rankings for internet download and upload speed respectively according to the recent report of OpenSignal.

According to the new report, Banglalink won the Download Speed Experience with a considerably improved score of 15.3Mbps, followed by Grameenphone’s speed of 14.1Mbps. Grameenphone, on the other hand, rated #1 in the Upload Speed Experience, with consumers’ speeds jumping from 4.1Mbps to 6.2Mbps.

Grameenphone stated in a statement that the Global Network Experience Award is very inspiring for its efforts to provide seamless connectivity and improved service quality to the people of Bangladesh.

Source for more details:

The Business Post

The most recent report from Counterpoint’s Market Monitor Service shows that in 2022, smartphone shipments from Bangladesh declined 23% year on year.

The disruption of the global supply chain, high levels of inflation, the financial crisis, higher import levies, and the recently enacted value-added tax (VAT) were all factors that had a role in the domestic smartphone market’s fall.

The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) reports that in 2022, Bangladesh imported 60,899 smartphones and produced 1,01 core devices domestically. The report showed that smartphone shipments as a percentage of all device shipments fell from 46% in 2021 to 39% in 2022.

Source for more details:

The Daily Observer

The Daily Star