How BTCL crawled back to life from death brink

It is hard to kill an organism that can adapt to changes, science says. Apparently, the same goes for an organisation.

After eight years of consecutive losses, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Company Limited (BTCL), the state-owned telephone company, has managed to turn around to profitability from dire straits.

In the 2021-2022 fiscal year, the company finally posted Tk6.72 crore net profit – thanks to the adoption of new technologies and services, effective use of infrastructure and the trimming cost of services.

Stakeholders, however, are still sceptical as the amount of profit it made is minuscule compared to the amount of losses it incurred over the past decade.

Between 2008 and 2021, the country's largest telecommunications company lost hundreds of crores taka, except posting a meagre Tk5 crore gain in 2013.

But, Dr Md Rafiqul Matin, managing director of the BTCL who has been helming the company out of the tight spot, is optimistic about the company's future.

"In order to survive in a competitive field like telecommunications, we have taken some initiatives and strategies in the last few years which have started to pay off. Being a big and oldest telecommunication company, we are hopeful of getting more exciting outcomes in near future," he said.

Smartphones and mobile internet hit BTCL

The BTCL, founded as the Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) following the country's independence in 1971, has the countrywide infrastructure and network even at the union level for providing various telecommunication services like voice carrier service, International Gateway, International Internet Gateway (IIG) Services, Internet Service Provider (ISP), Land phone (PSTN) operator and domain registration services.

Until 2008, it had managed to make a fair amount of profits each year being the market monopoly of the land phone and international voice call services.

However, things have only gone downhill for the state-owned company, once people started to turn to smartphones and mobile internet.

Many private-sector telecom and internet service providers in the country have thrived in the past decade or so, but the BTCL, despite having all the necessary infrastructure and policy support, suffered from perennial losses.

The usage of land phones or fixed phones and international voice calls gradually become obsolete because of the app-based audio and video calling service.

Product diversification, technology adoption behind BTCL's revival

From 2008 to 2021, the BTCL digested a loss of Tk2,904 crore, according to Bangladesh Economic Review 2022.

But from 2020, the size of the annual losses started to shrink as the company took several timely initiatives under its new management, said its MD Rafiqul Matin.

To make the land phone connection profitable, the BTCL launched the Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) service to provide the internet with telephone service through the optical fibre that allows customers to access Triple Play (video, voice and data) services.

Besides, it also brought the over-the-top (OTT) calling application "Alaap" in order to counter the foreign OTTs like Whatsapp, IMO and Viber.

With this app, users can make calls to any mobile or landline at a rate of 30 paisa per minute with a one-second pulse, said the BTCL MD.

Leasing fibre-optic cable and towers to mobile operators

Among six nationwide telecommunication transmission networks (NTTN) or broadband internet transmission operators, only the BTCL has a cent per cent underground fibre-optic network across the country, according to industry insiders.

However, most of this network had remained idle before 2019. But the current management started to lease this telecom infrastructure to the mobile operators which now became a major revenue-earning source.

At present, all mobile operators have been using BTCL's fiber-optic cable to carry the bandwidth internet to their users.

Besides fibre-optic cable, the BTCL also shared its telecommunications towers with the mobile operators which also remained unused till 2019.

Data and internet service behind revenue boos

In 2017-2018, the contribution of data and internet service to the total revenue of the BTCL was only Tk99.23 crore. But after five years, income from this branch of service has increased to Tk209.94 crore, which is a whopping 111.5% jump over five years.

Income from transmission and infrastructure sharing jumped by 467.6% in the last five years and 51% in the last year alone.

Fibre-optic cable for bandwidth transmission and infrastructure sharing had also a major boost in revenue.

In 2017-2018, the state-owned telecommunication company posted Tk26.25 crore earnings from the transmission and infrastructure-sharing areas. But in the last fiscal year, income from this front jumped to Tk148.98 crore, reads its annual report.

Changes in the mode of providing services

Apart from the aforementioned initiatives and changes, there are other strategies that have helped the BTCL to resuscitate. It has shifted all of its services to digital platforms from an analogue service system.

Customers now can subscribe to new connections by applying online and they can make payments online too.

"Now, no customer has to visit the BTCL office, rather our officers reached them following their online application," said BTCL MD Rafiqul Matin.

What the future holds for BTCL

Rafiqul Matin said the company has planned to take the Gigabyte Passive Optical Network (GPON) service to 42 more districts and take the WiFi internet to remote areas of the country.

"The company also looks at the economic zones and telecommunication management for the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant in Pabna to make a telecommunication hub in the future which is going to fetch more revenue," he said.  

Apart from this, leasing fibre-optic cable and mobile towers are going to be a big source of income for the company, he added.

Commenting on BTCL's return to profitability, Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar at the company's annual general meeting (AGM) meeting said, "We have successfully done everything possible to bring the BTCL to a competitive place, starting from adoption of new technologies."

"The goal of government institutions is not only to do business but to serve the people. But BTCL is doing both profit and service – this is unique," he added.