Banglalink to build 3,000 more towers by 2022

Banglalink, the third-largest mobile operator of the country, is going to add some 3000 new base transceiver stations (BTS) or towers in its network by 2022.

"We are now building more towers in the network after procuring spectrum, as we are committed to providing our customers with better service," said Erik Aas, Chief Executive Officer at Banglalink.

Banglalink boss made the statement while sharing the operator's financial results for the third quarter of this year with the media at his office on Saturday.

Some of these planned towers will be taken from tower companies and others will be built, Taimur Rahman, Chief Corporate & Regulatory Affairs Officer of Banglalink added.

At present, Banglalink has a total of 10,200 BTS towers across the country while the number is 18,023 and 13,812 for Grameenphone and Robi, the largest and second-largest mobile operator in the country.

Banglalink CEO also said that it will sell 5,500 of its towers to tower companies under the tower sharing guideline.

Talking about the 5G rollout, Erik Aas said that mobile operators' investment in 5G right now will be a complete waste of money because the country does not have the required ecosystem for the 5G technology.

"The ecosystem includes—5G enable handsets which are currently hardly seen in use in Bangladesh. Another, preparedness of the technology is fibre-optics cable connected network site, whereas we have only 20% connection," he said.

However, he said that 5G can be launched in Bangladesh on a cluster-based and the first favourite hotspot could be the Chattogram seaport. The next hotspot could be the medical sector, the Banglalink boss added.

Banglalink's YoY revenue up by 7.2%:

Banglalink recorded 7.2% year-on-year (YoY) growth in revenue in the third quarter, despite the hurdles presented by the Covid-19 pandemic. The 3rd quarter revenue growth is 12.36% higher than the previous quarter.

In the July-September quarter of 2021, the operator registered Tk1,236 crore in revenues.

The figure was Tk1,153 crore for the same period last year, according to financial results released on Saturday.

The mobile company, for the same time frame, reported a 32% growth in data-driven revenue.

 "Banglalink's performance in 3Q21 is yet another reflection of its efforts for providing quality digital services in Bangladesh," Erik Aas said.

"Our focus on customers, combined with targeted network investments and acquisition of additional spectrum, contributed to a 61.4% YoY growth in our 4G customer base. We are serving over 1.14 crore 4G users – which account for 33% of our total customer base," added the Banglalink chief.

Meanwhile, Banglalink's video streaming app –Toffee – gained about 14 lakh active users during the July-September quarter. This resulted in Toffee's monthly active user base reaching 63lakh.

As of July 2021, Banglalink has a 3.69crore subscriber base out of the country's 17.86 crores total active mobile SIM users.