Banglalink


Banglalink Digital Communications Ltd. is the third largest cellular service provider in Bangladesh. It is fully owned by 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.
Banglalink attained 1 million subscribers by December 2005 and 3 million subscribers in October 2006. In less than two years, by December 2007, Banglalink overtook Aktel to become the second largest operator in Bangladesh with more than 7.1 million customers.
As of September 2015, Banglalink had a subscriber base of 32.61 million with 24.81% market share. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Telecom Ventures Ltd. of Malta which is owned by Global Telecom Holding.
Banglalink had 1.03 million connections until December 2005. The number Banglalink users increased by 257 per cent and stood at 3.64 million at the end of 2006, making it the fastest growing operator in the world of that year. In August 2006, Banglalink became the first company to provide free incoming calls from BTTB for both postpaid and prepaid connections. On 20 August 2008, Banglalink got past the landmark of a 10 million subscriber base.

History

Sheba Telecom Ltd. was granted license in 1989 to operate in the rural areas of 199 upazilas. Later it obtained nationwide 15-year GSM license in November 1996 to extend its business to cellular mobile, radio telephone services. It launched operation in the last quarter of 1997 as a Bangladesh-Malaysia joint venture.
In July 2004, it was reported that Egypt based Orascom Telecom is set to purchase the Malaysian stakes in Sheba Telecom through a hush-hush deal, as Sheba had failed to tap the business potentials in Bangladesh mainly due to a chronic feud between its Malaysian and Bangladeshi partners. An agreement was reached with Orascom worth US$25 million was finalised in secret. The pact has been kept secret for legal reasons, considering financial fallout and because of the feud. The main reason for the undercover dealing was the joint venture agreement between the Bangladeshi and the Malaysian partners, which dictates that if any party sells its Sheba shares, the other party will enjoy the first right to buy that.
Integrated Services Ltd., the Bangladeshi partner, was being 'officially' shown as purchasing the shares held by Technology Resources Industries of Malaysia for $15 million. ISL then paid another $10 million to Standard Chartered Bank to settle Sheba's liabilities.
In September 2004, Orascom Telecom Holdings purchased 100% of the shares of Sheba Telecom Limited. It was acquired for US$60 million. Sheba had a base of 59,000 users, of whom 49,000 were regular when it was sold. Afterward it was re-branded and launched its services under the "Banglalink" brand on 10 February 2005.
In March 2008, Sheba Telecom Limited changed its name as Orascom Telecom Bangladesh Limited, matching its parent company name.
In July 2013, following the 2011 ownership restructuring in the parent company, the company name changed for the second time to Banglalink Digital Communications Ltd.
Banglalink Digital Communications Limited is a fully owned company of Telecom Ventures Ltd. which is a 100% owned subsidiary of Global Telecom Holding. VEON owns 51.9% shares of Global Telecom Holding following a business combination in April 2011, between VEON Ltd. and Wind Telecom S.p.A. VEON is a NASDAQ and Euronext Amsterdam-listed global provider of connectivity, with the ambition to lead the personal internet revolution for the 235 million+ customers it currently serves, and many others in the years to come. It offers services to customers in 13 markets including Russia, Italy, Algeria, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Armenia, Georgia, and Laos. VEON operates under the “Beeline”, “Kyivstar”, “WIND”, “Jazz”, “banglalink”, and “Djezzy” brands

Numbering scheme

Banglalink uses the following numbering scheme:
+88019N₁N₂N₃N₄N₅N₆N₇N₈ & +88014N₁N₂N₃N₄N₅N₆N₇N₈
Where, '+880' is the ISD code for Bangladesh and is needed only in case of dialing from outside Bangladesh.
'19' & '14' are the access codes for Banglalink as allocated by the Government of Bangladesh. Omitting +880 will require using 0 in place of it instead to represent local call, hence 019 & 014 are the general access codes. N₁N₂N₃N₄N₅N₆N₇N₈ is the subscriber number.

Products offered

Prepaid packages

Banglalink currently offers two prepaid plans. All the prepaid plans come in two phases—Standard and M2M. All connections provide EDGE, GPRS, 3G, HSPA, HSPA+, 4G, LTE to subscribers.
Former packages:
Currently there are three postpaid plans from Banglalink for its tail customers. These packages are known as Enterprise Personal, which is a subset of much larger Banglalink enterprise. All packages come with T&T local, nationwide dialling, ISD and e-ISD connectivity.
Former packages:
Banglalink Enterprise offers a wide range of products and services to suit the needs of the business community. It was first launched in December 2006. The current packages are:
Prior to the launch of Banglalink enterprise, Banglalink served the business clientele through a similar platform named Banglalink professional.

Banglalink customer care

Banglalink delivers customer care using its call centres and customer care networks. Currently Banglalink provides customer care services to its clients through:
In October 2007, BTRC fined Banglalink Tk. 1.25 billion for its involvement in illegal VoIP or call termination business. The then BTRC chairman, major general Manzurul Alam, confirmed Banglalink's involvement in the illegal trade. Banglalink, however, in a statement said the company has agreed to make a one time fixed payment of Tk. 1.25 billion to the government as compensation for its loss in revenues.