Warid Telecom enters Bangladesh

Dubai: The UAE's Warid Telecom, which last month won the sixth cellphone licence in Bangladesh, will launch services in 26 districts and aims for a subscriber base of 2.8 million by October, according to an industry analyst.

"According to its [Warid Telecom] internal documents, its initial plan is to acquire over 14 million customers in four phases by December 2007, following the launch of its services in October this year," Abu Saeed Khan, a leading telecom analyst, told Gulf News in a telephone interview.

In the second phase ending in January 2007, the company's plan is to expand its coverage to 22 more districts, targeting 3.1 million new customers.

In the third phase, 13 more districts will be included in its network by March 2007 with an aim to enlarge its subscriber base by 3.35 million.

"Warid will cover the rest of the country in the fourth and last step ending in December 2007, during which it expects to add five million new clients," Khan said.

Bangladesh has eight million mobile subscribers, though the fixed line subscription has reached barely a million in the 34-year-old country.

Grameen Phone leads the operators with 62 per cent market share, followed by Aktel which has over two million subscribers (about 25 per cent).

Analysts say growth in the country of 140 million people will remain explosive amid falling mobile phone prices.

Warid paid a Dh50 million fee to secure the licence, outbidding Omniah of Jordan.

Warid, which paid $291 million in 2003 for a licence in Pakistan, registered as a telecom company in Bangladesh early this year but had to wait until the government invited bids for the sixth operator.

Industry insiders say Warid will have to overcome the "unfriendly weather" from April to September as well as the looming political unrest in the run-up to the national elections slated for January 2007 to carry out its aggressive network rollout plan.

"In order to triumph over these challenges Warid, however, has decided to install microwave links for rapid deployment of local and countrywide transmission networks. It has stipulated a few critical tasks such as site acquisitions for base stations and energising these installations as the suppliers' responsibility," Khan said.

France's Alcatel, Sweden's Ericsson, China's Huawei, Germany's Siemens, Finland's Nokia and Motorola of the United States were scheduled to have submitted their bids for the supply and installation of the transmission network on January 14 at Warid's headquarters, according to sources.

"Warid also has asked them to arrange 80 per cent financing of this several hundreds of million dollars mobile phone project. It has proposed to repay the principal amount of the credit in 11 equal, consecutive, semi-annual instalments.

"The first tranche of the repayment will be disbursed no later than 18 months from the final acceptance or 21 months from the provisional acceptance of the commissioned equipment," Khan said .

Warid Telecom will award the contract to the winning bidder on February 11, apparently to break the news during the

3GSM World Congress opening in Barcelona on February 13.

The only country in which Warid has run a telecom business is Pakistan.