Political
Bangladesh Telecommunication Authority has been striving hard and trying its level best to create level playing field in the Cellular Mobile industry. Politically, Bangladesh is an unstable country where Government decisions and regulatory initiatives matter a lot.
* Telecom deregulation Issuance of cellular mobile license * Reduction in Taxes and Duties * Independent Regulation * One windows regular facility
Regulatory Initiatives by the government: 1. One windows regular facility 2. Simple liberalization Regime 3. CPP regime for cellular mobile subscriber 4. Level playing field royalties 5. Level playing field for all operators 6. Out of court statement of case with operators.
Economic * In Bangladesh, Airtel considers long term and short term state of the trading market. * Inflation is controlling by state bank and under strict eyes * Unemployment rate is going up and up with the increase of level of poverty. Airtel contributes to lower the level of unemployment rate by providing job opportunities for different level of people. For example – beginning from customer care service staffs to Managing Director etc.
Social
During the formation of marketing strategies, Airtel looks after a lot of factors. Deep study of local culture and social setups is also one of the major factors which account much in successful strategy formation of Airtel. Varying types of consumer behaviors are found in different societies. The study of society helps to understand the consumer behavior and in turn assists Airtel to improve their marketing strategies by understanding issues like:
* The way how consumers think, feel and select a cellular connection * The psychology of how consumer is influenced by culture, family and social setups. * As Bangladesh is an Islamic country and people are very strict in case of Islam any thing against the philosophy of Islam on either print or electronic media are treated as against Bangladesh. * Most of the people dislike anything extra-ordinary or something which sabotage their culture or subculture. * Companies who are targeting upper-end of market mostly published and aired their advertisement in English language. * In metropolitan cities women are doing work along with their other responsibilities but other than metropolitan cities it is difficult for women to convince their parents and spouses for work.
Understanding of these issues helps to adopt better strategies by taking the consumer into consideration. By understanding the consumer, Airtel makes a more Informed decision as to which strategy to employ. Legal
The Company is committed to maintaining the highest standard of conduct and professionalism and towards this end has formulated a policy that will provide clarity about the method and process for stakeholders to voice genuine concerns about unprofessional conduct in breach of this Code.
This policy aims to: * Provide an independent forum by means of the Office of the Ombudsperson, for employees and external stakeholders of the company to raise concerns and complaints about improper practices which are in breach of the Code of Conduct. * Put in place a fair and equitable inquiry process and redressed mechanism * Reassure employees and other stakeholders raising the concerns, that each one will be fully protected against possible reprisals, intimidation, coercive action, dismissal, demotion or victimization when a serious and genuine concern of apparent unprofessional conduct has been made in good faith
Scope of policy * This policy is applicable to all employees of theAirtel, and to all other stakeholders interacting with Airtel. It allows those individual employees and other stakeholders to raise concerns, issues or information of acts or conduct that are in breach of the company's Code of Conduct.
This policy provides advice and guidance on the procedures to be followed.
Who can raise concerns? * Any employee - be it full-time, part-time or associate employee - or external stakeholder (e.g. strategic partners, vendors, suppliers, contractors) who observes unprofessional behavior can approach the Ombudsperson to voice his or her concerns. The complainant may be either an observer who is not directly impacted, or a victim who is directly or indirectly affected by such practices.
Ethical
The legal policies of Airtel also ensure the maintenance of ethics in the organization through the Code of Conduct
Office of the ombudsperson * The Ombudsperson will administer the policy, for which he/she will have an office with the necessary facilities, ensuring complete confidentiality.
Protection
* The process is designed to offer protection to whoever discloses concerns regarding unprofessional conduct to the Ombudsperson. A complainant is not a 'trouble maker' or 'sneak' but a person who has come to the decision to express a concern regarding possible unprofessional conduct, after a lot of thought. The policy only requires that there be a genuine doubt - the person making the complaint is not expected to produce unquestionable evidence in support of the allegation. The Company has an obligation to ensure that a complainant who makes a disclosure in good faith and without malice is protected, regardless of whether or not the concern raised is ultimately found to be correct. No action will be taken against the complainant when an allegation made in good faith is not confirmed by subsequent investigation.
The Company affirms that it will not allow the person raising a concern to be victimized for doing so. In the unfortunate event where the person would be victimized, the Company will treat this as a serious matter and take disciplinary action against the perpetrator. The Ombudsperson will not reveal evidence of unprofessional conduct, and the Company will take disciplinary action if an employee destroys or conceals any relevant evidence.
However, if an allegation is made or a concern is raised frivolously, maliciously or for personal reasons, the Company may decide to take appropriate disciplinary or legal action against the complainant.
CSR activities by Airtel Bangladesh Limited | | | Airtel Bangladesh Limited, as being a socially responsible company always undertook various activities from corporate and social responsibility perspective. Following are a few significant ones:
1. Youth of the Nation Award
Airtel partnered with Jaago Foundation, a local NGO focusing on under privileged children’s education to sponsor Youth of the Nation Award for contribution to Voluntary and Development works for the betterment of the society which was supported by the US Embassy.
2. Ghuri Fest
An event called “Ghuri Fest” (Kite Festival) was organized and sponsored by Airtel with the theme of BijoyDibosh (Victory day) where BDT 1 lakh was collected by selling new kites and donated to JAAGO foundation to sponsor 500 under privileged children.
3. Blanket for Cold Affected
Airtel Bangladesh Limited took the initiative to distribute warm clothes and blankets to the destitute population primarily in northern parts of the country where the cold wave had affected most severely. The Telco giant Airtel distributed 8,500 blankets to the affected people.
4. Reduction of power usage
To reduce pressure of national power supply 75% of Airtel sites in Bangladesh have been installed in the outdoors with installation of new BTS equipment which consumes less power (typical consumption now is 0.7 KW ~ 0.8 KW against traditional BTS that consumes 1.5 KW having same configuration). The company has also deployed 380 FCUs (Free Cooling Units), ensuring 25% less power consumed in every site.
Seven sites run completely on solar, which are now on 5.5 hours/day DG, which before implementation were 16 hours per day.
5. Talent search
As part of youth community build up, Airtel Bangladesh Limited organized Airtel Rising Stars in 2012 and the second season of ARS has started in August 2013. In the first season, 12 talented young footballers were selected from more than 60,000 participants through rigorous selection process from all 64 districts of Bangladesh. Later these 12 youngsters were taken to the sacred land of football, Old Trafford, UK where they practiced in Manchester United Football Club which was a dream come true for many. Many of these 12 football players play in under-16 national team in Bangladesh currently. Demographic AnalysisDemographic factors not only represent a population’s different aspects but also possess an impact on how the population will behave towards a specific thing. So for this reason in this research having an idea on the demographic conditions of the sample population is important. Among many demographic factors five have been given preferences in this research and those are Gender, Age, Profession, Monthly Income and Monthly expenditureon mobile phone usage. From the analysis of the finding we can say that all of these factors have some influence over using a mobile company’s VAS to a certain extent. From 120 people 63% are male and female population is less than that. It represents that more male users are responsive and use mobile phone connection. Mostly the people who are students use Airtel as their mobile connections rather than the people of other professions. Additionally people belong to less or mid-income range use Airtel as they find Airtel more convenient and most of them tend to use BDT 500-1,000 per month behind mobile usage. However a sample does not give an accurate result about the whole population, so in this case a sample of 120 people does not give correct result rather an idea about the scenario of using Airtel as their mobile phone connection. | |
Organizational Structure
The organization is headed by its Chief Executive designated as the Managing Director entrusted with overall responsibilities of business direction of the organization and leading dynamically towards the attainment of it’s Vision, Mission and Goal. In attaining the above mission, the Chief Financial Officer, three General Managers & department Heads assists the MD. AIRTEL has established a strong and formidable sales channel, which consists of direct dealers and its own sales force. * Managing Director * HR Division * Head of HR * Finance Division * Chief Financial Officer * GM of Finance * Marketing * Division * Head of Marketing * Corporate Affairs Department * Head of CA * Coordination & Regulatory Division * Director * C & R
Bharti Airtel South Asian operations are headed by Mr. Sanjay Kapoor who reports to company‟s Chairman Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal. Airtel‟s South Asian operations are geographically divided into three zones and each zone is headed by one CEO. The CEO of Airtel Bangladesh Ltd. Reports to Mr. Ajay Puri, who is leading Bangladesh and Western part of Indian operations of Airtel. The management team is named as Airtel Leadership Board (ALB) in Bangladesh. All the fuctional heads are a member of this team which is headed by CEO and Managing Director Mr. Chris Tobit.
The workforce in Airtel Bangladesh Limited combines total of 13 departments with their respective functions. Combining all the below divisions the management team is build: 1. Finance 2. Legal 3. Corporate assurance 4. Corporate affairs 5. IT 6. Sales 7. HR 8. Operational Excellence 9. Engineering 10. Supply chain management 11. Customer care
Span of Control
As Airtel is not a static telecom company, rather a very dynamic one, it is very essential to have a good communication channel within the organization. The competitive market requires decision making process to be very quick. In big issues top management takes decisions. In the other hand executive takes small decisions. In this regards sometimes executives discuss with his immediate supervisor.
Generally weekly meeting takes place in every department regarding next week assignments. The organization has an executive committee, which includes Chairman, Directors, Managing Director, Chief Financial Officer and other four general managers.
SIM BIOMETRIC:
State Minister for Telecommunications Tarana Halim inaugurated the process at the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission’s (BTRC) office on Wednesday.
On Nov 1, Prime Minister’s ICT Affairs Advisor Sajeeb Ahmed Wazed Joy launched the trials by registering a SIM for himself.
Halim said on Wednesday they had identified the problems and solved those during the trials.
“We have embarked on the journey of digital identification by launching biometric SIM registrations,” she announced.
Subscribers now have to provide fingerprints while buying SIM card while owners of previously issued SIMs will have to register in the new process by April next year, she added.
BTRC Chairman Shahjahan Mahmood assured representatives of the operators at the ceremony, including Grameenphone CEO Rajeev Sethi, Robi CEO Supun Weerasinghe, Banglalink CEO Erik Aas, to resolve any problems they face by 24 to 48 hours.
The initiatives to verify subscribers’ information and SIM re-registration were taken recently after allegations that many of the SIMs were either registered under fake names or unregistered.
Criminals and terrorists have been reportedly using many of these SIMs.
After the process to crosscheck subscribers’ information with the National Identity Registration Wing’s server started, it was found that around 75 percent of the 10 million SIM cards verified until now were ‘not registered properly’.
Only 2.34 million SIMs were registered properly, according to government statistics.
Reduction of taxes:
Bangladesh’s Posts and Telecommunications minister Tarana Halim urged the finance minister not to impose a 1 per cent surcharge on mobile usage and not to tax SIM cards when they are re-registered under a government drive to verify users’ information.
Halim noted that adding a 1 per cent surcharge would damage the government’s vision to build a digital Bangladesh. The New Age quoted her as saying: “We are trying to lower the cost to the end-user to speed up the country’s digitalisation. If the surcharge is imposed, then it will affect end-users.”
The country started a SIM registration and biometric identification campaign last month after a trial in October and November. The telecoms regulator set a March deadline for operators to register all users or they face a $50 penalty for each unverified SIM.
Operators have to pay BDT100 ($1.28) for each new connection sold and for each replacement SIM.
Halim insisted that newly registered SIM holders, when updating their user information, should not pay the tax again. “I have requested the financial minister to consider the issue seriously as there is no logic in imposing a double tax on a single SIM,” the Dhaka Tribune said.
In a letter to the National Board of Revenue (NBR), the country’s mobile operators said it should not treat re-registered SIMs as the sale of new connections or replacements, as the SIM tax was paid and they only have inaccurate information.
The NBR, however, has said than any change of ownership of existing SIM cards would be considered as a sale of a new connection, which is subject to the SIM tax, the New Age reported.
The NBR already has an ongoing dispute with four operators – Grameenphone, Robi, Banglalink and Airtel – over a SIM replacement tax claim totaling BDT30.1 billion ($384 million) that dates back to 2011.
MERGER:
he Bangladesh telecom regulator has primarily approved the request for merger of Robi and Airtel.
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) go-ahead made the merged entity the second largest operator in the country after Grameenphone.
Sarwar Alam, spokesperson and BTRC secretary, said the commission did not find any legal problems in granting the request.
“We can send it for the government next week for final approval.”
According to the telecom act, the government, not the regulator, can give final consent for merger.
After the merger all the property and assets will also merge together with the subscribers and spectrums of Robi and Airtel.
“We found no problem even in the merging of the spectrum and subscribers. So, the commission approved it,” he added. Currently Grameenphone has 5.4 crore active subscribers and Banglalink has 3.2 crore active user while Robi and Airtel will be jointly 3.7 crore.
Robi will have a 75 percent stake in the merged entity while Airtel 25 percent, according to the joint application signed by Supun Weerasinghe, chief executive officer of Robi, and PD Sarma, managing director of Airtel Bangladesh, to the telecom regulator.
Techonolgy
Technology Used By AIRTEL
NGN (Next Generation Network)
The network that has been deployed in Bangladesh by Airtel is based on the NGN or Next-Generation Technology- a future-proof architectural system which ensures optimum utilization of frequency and enhances speed and quality of both voice and data services.
