Restrictions clipped our wings, says GP Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Tanveer Mohammad

Regulatory restrictions, including the Significant Market Power (SMP) status, which disallow transmission and network investments, have "clipped the wings" of Grameenphone, the leading mobile operator in the country, said its new chief corporate affairs officer, Tanveer Mohammad.

"The restrictions and micromanagement of regulations over the years, limited our capacity to soar and innovate, despite our proven commitment to be the largest partner of the nation's digitalisation," he said in a recent interview with The Business Standard.

Tanveer Mohammad joined GP in 1997 as a system engineer and ascended to the position of the chief technology officer before his key roles at Telenor Group, such as head of the Asia Integration Team, and served as chief operating officer of Telenor India, one of GP's parent company's business units.

He came back home to take charge of GP's corporate and regulatory affairs a month ago. 

"Over the past few weeks, I have been fortunate to witness firsthand the transformative power of connectivity and the immense potential it holds for driving progress," said Tanveer.

However, Grameenphone, a pioneer in Bangladesh's modern telecommunications, has been confronting some major regulatory hurdles over the past one and half decades and Tanveer Mohammad shared his views on these.

"Bangladesh is possibly the only country in the world that forbids the mobile industry to deploy transmission infrastructure. Yet the authorities set service standards and aspire to launch advanced services like 5G," he said.

Since 2008, mobile network operators (MNOs) have gradually lost their licensing rights for fibre network and tower construction, which he believes, created an unpredictability that can affect investors' confidence and deter future investments.

Mobile operators' transmission rights were revoked through the introduction of Nationwide Telecommunications Transmission Network (NTTN) licences in 2008-09, internet service provider (ISP) licence rights for fixed broadband connections were revoked in 2009-11 and tower construction rights were revoked through the separate exclusive tower-company licences in 2018.

Now, the fragmented telecom value chain in Bangladesh involves multiple players, like NTTN operators, interconnection exchange (IE), international internet gateway (IIG), international gateways, content providers and tower-sharing companies.

Each requirement for various licences results in high operating expenses and increased complexities in operations, hindering the delivery of affordable quality services and causing customer dissatisfaction, he said.

There are also no proper and uniform key performance indicators and parameters to measure the quality of service across the value chain.

Mobile operators rely on various value chain partners, and despite their significant investment capacity, companies like GP are not permitted to develop a superior, independent ecosystem.

GP already investing nearly Tk52,800 crore in the country, contributed a cumulative sum of Tk1,24,000 crore to the national exchequer till June this year. Around 73% of the GP revenue in 2022-23 was the government's takeaway.

Tanveer believes mobile operators should be allowed to invest in fibre, towers, and other critical areas of the telecom value chain alongside the investments made by dedicated licence holders.

"Such restrictions made attracting investments challenging in Bangladesh due to the unpredictable laws and regulations," he said.

GP was designated as a Significant Market Power (SMP) in 2019 due to its approximately 46% customer market share at the time, which was followed by numerous regulatory restrictions on expanding its business.

"The purpose of introducing SMP regulation is to ensure market competition, not to impose barriers to the growth of any market player. There has been no evidence suggesting that Grameenphone has misused its dominant position to affect competition," he said.

"Unlike the common allegation elsewhere that the market leader hurts rivals by aggressive price cuts, GP rather satisfies its customers with superior services and thus customers opt for GP. This loyalty speaks volumes about the superior products, services, and experiences GP delivers, which stand out in a competitive landscape," he said."

"Currently, we observe severe competition among the mobile operators, and we welcome that as it benefits customers. However, the current interpretations of SMP seem to have inadvertently hampered GP's ability to innovate for better customer experience and respond to market demands for enhanced services," said Tanveer.

He said, "Globally, there is no precedent for connecting SMP status to spectrum allocation. GP during its spectrum acquisition move at the low bands of 850 MHz, crucial for enhancing indoor coverage, is hearing about its SMP status, unfortunately."

He also praised several positive steps taken by the Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission, including the unified licensing system for mobile operators and the regulatory officials' patient approach to hearing the issues faced by licensees.

"We are optimistic for simplification and modernisation of telecom regulations that will drive effective competition, innovation and market growth," the GP official added.