The prominence of Grameenphone in Bangladesh’s development journey and the promises it holds for the future.
What makes a name bigger than merely the company it represents – What makes it a brand? As Grameenphone celebrates its silver jubilee of empowering Bangladeshis by harnessing the power of connectivity, perhaps the answers lie precisely in this – the values it represents, which often exceed the core services its name bearer provides.
So what does Grameenphone, the brand, represent? Many things. Over the last 25 years, Grameenphone, the brand, went through various stages of evolution. In each stage of the journey, the brand empowered its millions and a growing number of users by connecting them to each other. When Grameenphone began its journey in 1997 as a social enterprise, its objective was to democratise technology by making it affordable and accessible to all, everywhere in Bangladesh.
Since then, the cost of connecting over a mobile device from anywhere in Bangladesh has come down roughly eighty-fold. Grameenphone, the brand, became an enabler of connectivity, taking leadership of the telecom industry in Bangladesh very early in its journey.
But, did Grameenphone rest on its laurels as it became the market leader? Had the answer been a ‘yes,’ today the company would not have retained its unequivocal leadership. Instead, the company explored new and innovative, often unprecedented, ways of creating value through connection; and the results were instant. So, what were they? Access to affordable connectivity meant access to services that were previously unimaginable, which had a direct impact on improvements in the quality of life, and hence the perceptions of what is possible. The examples are abundant. Grameenphone’s earliest initiatives such as ‘Jibon Tori,’ a floating medical centre that provided rural people access to medical care, and its ‘Community Information Centre’ (CIC), a modern information centre across rural areas of the nation, are only two in the growing list. The latter, especially, enabled the people of this nation to get the first glimpse of what the internet was all about, and what was possible through it. The dream of ‘Internet for All’ had begun taking its first steps.
Grameenphone was not simply a telecom service provider anymore. It became a brand, synonymous with connectivity and empowerment. The brand, however, was not only satisfied with connecting people with each other. Its hunger for creating opportunities through connectivity would not satiate that way.
The Grameenphone Cricket Academy, which quickly followed Bangladesh’s first cricketing triumph in the ICC Champions Trophy, has later made stars out of young Mashrafe Bin Mortuza, Shakib Al Hasan, and Mahmudullah, among many others. What was the common thread binding all these seemingly different initiatives? It connected people – with each other, with opportunities, with their dreams and possibilities.
Grameenphone truly was a connectivity partner of the people. By the 2000s, with millions of people already using Grameenphone’s services to achieve the unachievable, how people would connect was set to transform. In 2013, the era of 3G in Bangladesh would begin, and with it, the era of truly ensuring ‘Internet for All’.
Grameenphone’s online school, during that time, connected people in rural communities with their dream of getting an education. Bangladesh began enjoying a once-in-a-century opportunity of enjoying a demographic dividend. The country’s growing economy was brimming with highly energetic youth, gearing up to take the nation’s economy to the next level. The nation needed technology, and the nation’s youth needed skills to use it. Grameenphone had both. And they acted upon it.
Thus, began the country’s first accelerator program, the GP Accelerator, in 2015. Over the years, Grameenphone discovered and patronised highly successful tech-based startups through GP Accelerator. It inspired others to follow suit. Now, there are many other accelerator programs aimed at finding and nurturing promising startups. However, GP Accelerator continues to remain meaningful enough to inspire the ecosystem. The initiative was impactful enough to earn Grameenphone the Digital Bangladesh Award in 2021.
By this time, millions of Bangladeshis were communicating via mobile internet, thanks to affordable smartphone prices, and affordable data packs. Opportunities, however, were accompanied by threats. Cyberbullying threatened to become rampant, and like many of its pioneering moves, Grameenphone took the threat head-on. ‘Internet for All’ evolved into ‘Safer Internet for All’. The initiative raised country-wide awareness about cyberbullying, and how to effectively prevent it. Thus, while Grameenphone was introducing Bangladeshis to the endless opportunities of the digital realm, the brand was also protecting them from its threats. Its status as a digital enabler was cemented.
With its growing list of priorities that accompanied endless ways in which it could empower people by digitally enabling them, Grameenphone was never distracted from its core objective – unleashing the power of connectivity for everyone in Bangladesh. For example, in 2015 Grameenphone was the first to respond to the Honourable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s call to connect the people of the enclaves with 3G connectivity. In 2019, the brand enhanced its deep-sea network capacity in the Bay of Bengal, allowing commuters and fishermen in the deep sea to communicate with the mainland.
As a responsible member of the society, Grameenphone has acted to help the people of Bangladesh to respond to crises and disasters. The brand cooperated with a2i, DGHS, and UNICEF to utilise Big Data for fighting back the spread of the coronavirus during the height of the pandemic. Titled, ‘Dakche Amar Desh,’ the initiative was followed by ‘Dakche Abar Desh’ in 2021 to support the ultra-poor communities of the nation.
How was it made possible? In 2018, the 4G era in Bangladesh had begun, and by the time the pandemic began, Grameenphone already had the widest 4G network coverage in Bangladesh. This enabled the brand to help ensure that the lockdowns during the pandemic did not break down the education system in the country, by enabling distance education. Although people remained distant, they remained connected. Thus, the nation’s people were successfully able to fight back against the unprecedented threat of health, economic, and social crisis presented by the pandemic. The brand’s uncompromising stance to stand at the forefront of technological leadership to ensure seamless connectivity was unchallenged, and it remains unchallenged to this date. Currently, all of Grameenphone’s 18,700 Base Transceiver Stations are 4G-enabled.
One could understandably ask – what has enabled Grameenphone to maintain this undisputed position of leadership over 25 long years? Currently, the operator has well over 80 million subscribers – miles ahead of the rest. An obvious answer is the company’s keen understanding of the connectivity needs of the people, and its first-mover strategy in responding to the needs with innovative, tech-enabled solutions.
When it comes to meeting customer demands, Grameenphone does not only take it in terms of customer segment. Another secret of the brand’s success is its dedication to catering to individual customers’ demands. Grameenphone understands that each of its 80+ million subscribers has a particular preference regarding service, and goes above and beyond to make them accessible. The company has created multiple product segments and ensured their accessibility through MyGP App. It is Grameenphone’s flagship application which provides customers access to almost all the services with a tap. Built with the vision of creating a digitally inclusive country, MyGP has evolved from simple self-service to an all-in-one solution that combines all the telco benefits of Grameenphone with an array of lifestyle, cause, contextual need and entertainment offerings. However, MyGP App is only the tip of the iceberg in GP’s colossal digital drive. Bioscope by GP is one of the most popular OTT platforms in the country, specialising in local content. It primarily caters to the rising demand for local content, unavailable on international platforms.
But, then the question comes – how does the brand manage to do that on such a consistent basis? The most obvious answer to that is the people at Grameenphone. Grameenphone spends generously and strategically to enhance the skills of its employees on a continuous basis. The sheer importance Grameenphone and its parent company, Telenor, attribute to employee skilling and re-skilling is evidenced by them winning the Guinness World Records™ title for most users to take an online personal development lesson in 24 hours, in late 2021. Intelligent leadership, strong and ethical governance, and continuous training are secrets to the company’s continued retention of its position as the most loved and trusted telco brand.
As the country keenly awaits its transition to 5G and subsequently, enjoys the inevitable perks of the fourth industrial revolution, Grameenphone stands ready to help people make the most out of the endless opportunities it represents. Thus, what new stories unfold as the company proudly marches towards its golden jubilee, one year at a time, remains to be seen.
