How Bangladesh’s call centre industry lost its edge
The call centre sector has not evolved into the export powerhouse once imagined. Instead, it has grown unevenly — caught between early hype and structural constraints
When Bangladesh opened its first call centres in 2008-09, the industry was hailed as a potential game changer — an export-oriented service sector that could employ youth and connect the country to global markets.
Nearly two decades on, the sector survives, but its ambitions remain largely unfulfilled.
Bangladesh today has an operational call centre and BPO ecosystem employing roughly 100,000 people, according to industry estimates. Yet the sector has not evolved into the export powerhouse once imagined. Instead, it has grown unevenly — caught between early hype and structural constraints.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
A misunderstanding at the core
The industry's trajectory was shaped, in part, by how it began.
Public call offices (PCOs) had once been ubiquitous across Bangladesh, offering long-distance and international calling services through landlines at a time when private access to such connectivity was limited. Customers would visit neighbourhood booths to make NWD or ISD calls, paying per minute.
When the government introduced call centre licensing, many entrepreneurs interpreted it through that familiar lens. They assumed it referred to another form of call-providing service — an upgraded version of the PCO model — rather than an organised system of customer service operations.
"This misunderstanding created a rush for licences," said Tanvir Ibrahim, president of the Bangladesh Association of Call Center and Outsourcing (BACCO).
"In a single round, around 450 licences were issued. But once licence holders realised that call centres were not about facilitating calls but about delivering structured customer service, which requires technology, trained manpower, process management and client acquisition, the gap between expectation and reality became evident," he said.
Over time, only about 150 operators remained active, while the rest quietly exited the market.
For the companies that survived, the early years were defined by improvisation.
Tanzirul Basher, vice president of BACCO and also managing director of My Outsourcing Limited – one of the oldest call centre companies in Bangladesh – recalls an industry learning its own vocabulary from scratch.
"There was no ecosystem, no trained workforce, no understanding of how global outsourcing worked," he said. "We had to build everything ourselves — systems, training, client relationships."
Unlike India or the Philippines, where BPO industries emerged alongside strong educational pipelines and global corporate networks, Bangladesh's sector developed in isolation. Telecom companies became the primary source of demand, shaping the industry's contours.
Banks and financial institutions entered the ecosystem much later, driven by cost considerations and digitalisation pressures.
"Call centres will not disappear because of AI. But low-skilled call centre jobs will. The question is whether our workforce is prepared to move beyond basic voice support into more skilled, technology-driven roles."
From telecommunications, the outsourcing model gradually expanded to other sectors — FMCG, automotive, electronics, pharmaceuticals — and eventually to government services. Many national helplines, including emergency services such as 999 and health hotlines, also began to rely on outsourced customer support, as Tanzirul mentioned.
But diversification remained limited. Tourism, retail, manufacturing and government services did not generate enough demand to sustain large-scale expansion.
The human face of the industry
At its peak, call centres attracted a distinctive workforce.
For many university students and college graduates, a call centre job offered flexible hours, moderate pay and exposure to digital work culture.
The industry became a transitional space for young people navigating between education and employment. At one point, call centres were seen as aspirational – especially for English-speaking urban youth.
That perception has changed.
Today, many young people no longer consider call centre jobs lucrative or prestigious. Wages have stagnated relative to rising living costs. Career progression remains limited. Night shifts carry social stigma. Parents do not allow their children —- especially girls — to work in night shifts. The work itself is increasingly perceived as precarious.
"Earlier, young people saw call centres as an opportunity," Tanzirul said. "Now they see them as temporary jobs, not careers."
Attrition rates remain high. Workers often leave after gaining minimal experience, either migrating abroad, shifting to other sectors, or preparing for competitive exams.
Despite these challenges, however, the industry has grown in absolute terms.
From roughly 300 workers in the early 2010s, Bangladesh's call centre and BPO workforce has expanded to around 100,000 today, according to industry estimates. This growth reflects rising domestic demand and gradual expansion into back-office services and digital customer support.
Yet the quality of employment remains uneven.
Most workers are concentrated in low-value tasks: voice-based customer support, basic data processing and routine service operations. High-value segments — such as analytics, technical support and specialised outsourcing — remain limited.
This structural imbalance limits productivity and wages, reinforcing the perception that call centre jobs are stepping stones rather than destinations.
The English proficiency barrier
Among the industry's most persistent barriers is language.
"India entered the IT and IT-enabled services sector at least 30 years before us," Tanvir said. "They developed a clear roadmap, took deliberate steps, and created awareness among students that IT and ITeS could be viable career paths. As a result, a large number of graduates entered that sector."
Language, he argued, remains a critical disadvantage for Bangladesh.
"If you compare English proficiency, the difference is obvious," he said. "In fact, even Bangla-language call centres struggle to find agents who can speak proper, standard Bangla. When you move towards international operations, the challenge becomes much bigger."
He described the difficulty of sustaining an English-speaking workforce.
"For a 50-seat international operation, it is extremely difficult to find and retain even 50 competent English-speaking agents," he said. "Those who have better communication skills often leave call centres because they do not see this as a long-term career. The job is monotonous, and the industry itself is not large enough to offer strong career prospects."
The result is visible in market share. While the global BPO industry is valued at more than $550 billion, Bangladesh's footprint remains around $1 billion, combining domestic and international operations, with the domestic market accounting for the bulk of activity.
Why Bangladesh keeps missing the window
For years, rigid licensing rules required companies to operate from physical offices, maintain dedicated servers and separate domestic and international infrastructure — conditions that limited flexibility and discouraged scale.
"Globally, call centres operate wherever there is internet, but here we created barriers that made scaling difficult," said Tanvir Ibrahim.
Operational disruptions, including internet shutdowns, have further weakened Bangladesh's credibility.
"When internet services were suspended during the July movement, many member companies lost clients," Tanzirul said. "Imagine a Bangladeshi firm handling 24-hour customer support for a foreign company. If its operations suddenly stop and it cannot communicate with its client, the client will not wait. The client will shift the work to another country — India or the Philippines, for example."
At the same time, the sector struggles to attract and retain young workers despite rising wages.
Entry-level salaries that once hovered around Tk10,000 have climbed to Tk15,000 to Tk17,000, with commissions lifting earnings close to Tk20,000, yet many young people still view call centre jobs as temporary rather than aspirational careers.
AI and the next disruption
Artificial intelligence is reshaping the global outsourcing landscape, raising questions about the future of human-driven customer service.
For Bangladesh, AI represents both risk and opportunity.
"Call centres will not disappear because of AI," Tanzirul Basher said, "but low-skilled call centre jobs will. The question is whether our workforce is prepared to move beyond basic voice support into more skilled, technology-driven roles."
Automation could reduce demand for entry-level call centre jobs, intensifying pressure on an already fragile labour market. At the same time, AI-driven tools could enhance productivity and create new roles — if the workforce can upskill fast enough.
Whether Bangladesh can adapt will depend less on technology and more on education policy, training infrastructure and institutional reform.
