Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Attachment 5 of Appendix 1
Market Strategy a. Detail of market assessment b. Strategy for marketing c. Contingency plan of applicant (operator) for changed market scenario
Page 1 of 18
Detail of market assessment: Revenue generation in ICX business is solely depends on interntional incoming & outgoing and domestic traffic. Overtime the International incoming call is on increasing trend with a significant growth rate. Generally It increases on weekends around 15% to 20% and generally doubles on the festival day like Eid or other holidays. From BTRC data we can analyze it correctly as depicted below:
October, 2008 November, 2008 December, 2008 January, 2009 February, 2009 March, 2009 April, 2009 May, 2009 June, 2009 July, 2009 August, 2009 September, 2009 October, 2009 November, 2009 December, 2009 January, 2010 February, 2010 March, 2010 April, 2010 May, 2010 June, 2010 July, 2010 August, 2010 September, 2010 October, 2010 November, 2010 December, 2010 January, 2011 February, 2011 March, 2011 April, 2011 May, 2011 June, 2011 July, 2011 August, 2011 September, 2011
566,300,041.27 731,911,586.12 631,963,547.46 632,385,529.31 647,041,827.05 672,699,995.96 673,348,666.07 703,795,334.85 709,750,853.35 770,867,155.78 812,234,581.49 889,465,262.24 809,751,569.21 815,237,285.49 825,221,200.61 931,221,090.50 968,520,157.45 1,212,399,876.09 1,377,119,401.44 1,383,625,259.70 1,336,262,812.91 1,383,257,992.59 1,410,788,122.74 1,475,600,637.46 1,396,273,152.69 1,495,627,227.32 1,329,615,793.45 1,356,845,687.68 1,220,536,747.02 1,324,391,137.23 1,348,090,200.55 1,496,686,114.05 1,486,799,180.88 1,553,947,343.06 1,531,207,044.89 1,388,567,954.25
October, 2008 November, 2008 December, 2008 January, 2009 February, 2009 March, 2009 April, 2009 May, 2009 June, 2009 July, 2009 August, 2009 September, 2009 October, 2009 November, 2009 December, 2009 January, 2010 February, 2010 March, 2010 April, 2010 May, 2010 June, 2010 July, 2010 August, 2010 September, 2010 October, 2010 November, 2010 December, 2010 January, 2011 February, 2011 March, 2011 April, 2011 May, 2011 June, 2011 July, 2011 August, 2011 September, 2011
23,662,278.65 43,278,329.45 39,979,232.52 38,859,960.42 35,597,395.85 36,253,019.73 32,172,275.39 32,853,549.60 32,315,993.08 33,706,139.52 32,713,515.51 34,702,218.49 43,433,369.00 43,882,422.00 34,597,444.23 34,897,262.28 33,796,222.64 36,077,212.41 35,189,794.46 36,853,183.14 34,154,665.99 32,785,456.53 30,221,651.71 33,396,507.00 30,964,096.60 33,238,511.22 31,281,182.22 33,453,140.94 29,457,185.65 32,676,000.37 30,317,849.85 31,365,640.35 29,780,274.21 32,122,687.16 31,258,929.08 26,201,704.75
Month January, 2011 February, 2011 March, 2011 April, 2011 May, 2011 June, 2011 July, 2011 August, 2011 September, 2011
Traffic (Minute) 916,847,025 853,971,639 952,038,266 964,310,021 1,012,273,737 1,017,344,321 1,017,344,321 1,059,270,631 1,033,526,939
The public telephone network and the equipment that is considered as the default mother infrastructure setup for the business in most parts of world. Availability of a telephone and access to a low-cost, high-quality worldwide network is considered to be essential in modern art of technology (telephones are even expected to work when the power is off). Anything that would jeopardize this is usually treated with suspicion. There is, however, a paradigm shift beginning to occur since more and more communications is in digital form and transported via packet networks such as IP, ATM cells, and Frame Relay frames. Since data traffic is growing much faster than telephone traffic, there has been considerable interest in transporting voice over data networks (as opposed to the more traditional data over voice networks).
Enhanced All existing Wireless integration Domestic tier one International tier one Tier two All international cost-sensitive domestic International: most business residential International: cost-sensitive business $550B
$200B
$60B $40B
most residential
Tier three International call home International prepaid: immigrants
students
$10B
VoIP (Voice over IP) or Support for voice communications using the Internet Protocol (IP), has become especially attractive given the low-cost, flat-rate pricing of the public Internet. In fact, toll quality telephony over IP has now become one of the key steps leading to the convergence of the voice, video, and data communications industries. The feasibility of carrying voice and call signaling messages over the Internet has already been demonstrated but delivering high-quality commercial products, establishing public services, and convincing users to buy into the vision are just beginning. VoIP can be defined as the ability to make telephone calls (i.e., to do everything we can do today with the PSTN) and to send facsimiles over IP-based data networks with a suitable quality of service (QoS). In this regard the comparative advantage is superior cost/benefit. Equipment producers see VoIP as a new opportunity to innovate and compete. The challenge for them is turning this vision into reality by quickly developing new VoIP-enabled equipment. For Internet service providers, the possibility of introducing usage-based pricing and increasing their traffic volumes is very attractive. Users are seeking new types of integrated voice/data applications as well as cost benefits. Successfully delivering voice over packet networks presents a tremendous opportunity; however, implementing the products is not as straightforward a task as it may first appear. One must possess an in-depth knowledge in the technologies, infrastructures, software, and systems that will be necessary to realize VoIP on a large scale. Product development challenges such as ensuring interoperability, scalability, and cost/effectiveness need to be addressed thoroughly. So the types of applications that will benefit the most from the convergence of voice and data networks definitely drive the market and need to be identified.
Page 5 of 18
1.1 RELEVANT MARKET ASSESSMENT The telecommunication market is integrated one but operates in two levels international and local level. In developing country context the growth rate is potential skewed in positive direction due to changing adaptive life status of the inhabitants. Though both the levels are not always show positive direction. In certain case the international growth rate is higher if the local market is saturated. The opposite scenario may occur with the development pace of the country or it is a case of developed country where technological innovation has gained huge popularity and resulted in massive adoption. 1.1 Global scenario
Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) has been gaining high popularity among the users for its low cost advantage. According to a new report by Infotics Research, the market reached a US$ 48.9 billion in 2010 and is on track to triple to US$ 140.9 billion by 2015. 1.2 Market demand
The international calls made to Bangladesh are mainly from UK, USA, Canada, the Middle Eastern countries, Korea, Malaysia, Italy, Australia, Sweden, Singapore etc. These are generally personal level communication. On the other hand, the outbound At a conservative 10% or a global growth rate the potential market demand for 2010 is million minutes per day. So the untapped demand for 2012 is calculated a more than 80 million minutes per day. If new operators along with 3 existing companies other than BTCL are permitted to operate in the market then each company is estimated at more than 6 million minutes per day subject to new number if IGW licensee.
B N L D S O TG IN TR F IC A G A E H U O G AF
A a .P cific P kista a n M la sia a y S g p re in a o M a .E st E ro e u p In ia d
4 M n M u s o th illio in te /M n
Page 6 of 18
Telecom Operators in Market: Grameenphone, jointly owned by Telenor and Grameen Telecom, has retained top position. The leading telecom operator, which added 6.7 million new customers alone last year, has crossed the 30million mark to take its tally to 30.4 million. Second-placed Banglalink made a big stride as it roped in 20 million subscribers. Robi, owned by Axiata (Bangladesh), a joint venture between Axiata Group Berhad, Malaysia and NTT DOCOMO, Japan, stood third with 12.6 million subscribers. Indian mobile giant Airtel, which made formal launch in December after its parent company Bharti Airtel bought controlling stakes into Warid, closed January with 4.184 million users.
Citycell, the oldest operator in the country, and also the lone CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) technology-based mobile phone operator, is placed at fifth with 1.858 million customers, despite losing nearly one lakh customers. Bottom-placed Teletalk ended the first month of the year with 1.204 million customers, according to BTRC. Last year, six mobile operators -- one state-run and five others private -- altogether sold 16.21 million new connections, 30.91 per cent up on 2009, according to the regulator. In 2009, the number of active subscribers grew 17.45 per cent and 29.88 per cent the year before.
Page 7 of 18
Forecasted Mobile Phone Users of Bangladesh Experts say the country's mobile subscription could reach 120 million within the next few years, while the operators are vying to target the largely untapped rural population. Although the mobile penetration rate stands at a little over 40 per cent, the growth largely confines to urban areas.
1.4 Incoming and Outgoing call Projection Projection methodology: Company has projected the incoming and outgoing calls for Bangladesh from the established number of Phone Users adjusted to achieve Growth Rates and different scenarios from Industry experts. It is estimated that 0.03 is standard Erlang/User As per ITU-T and a Study done by Kayani and Dymond for World Bank (Technical Article 359). erLang is a telecommunication unit which represent network-wide average traffic in a particular hour. So each user in Bangladesh uses only 3% of Network capacity. With the above assumptions our calculations shows the total minutes an IGW will be handling and Number of E1 each IGW will need. It is also a standard assumption is that single E1 can handle up to 30,000 minutes call Per Day (but normally it is considered as 20,000 minutes per E1 per day).
Industry Overview
Page 8 of 18
The countries covered in this analysis include: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Georgia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. Researchers Lisa Hulme-Jones and Peter Evans in their report published on April 2011 in BuddeComm,Forecasts, provides a series of scenario forecasts. By describing long-range scenarios we identify a band within which we expect subscriber growth to occur. The associated text describes what we see as the most likely growth trend within the identified band. The actual forecasts are summarized in a series of tables. Our scenario forecasting methodology applies our own historical information, together with telecommunications sector statistics from official and non-official, national and international sources. We assume a possible deviation of 15-20% around this data. All statistics for GDP, revenue, etc are quoted in US$, in order to maintain consistency within and between markets. At the same time we acknowledge that this can introduce some irregularities. A set of sample tables are presented below, these being the actual scenario forecasts for Vietnam. The upper and lower scenarios forecasts are for the years 2015 and 2020.
Page 9 of 18
(Source: BuddeComm, forecasts) Vietnam Forecast mobile subscribers 2015; 2020 Lower growth scenario Year 2009 2010 (e) 2015 2020 Subscribers (million) 97.6 102.0 150.0 175.0 Penetration 60% 62% 82% 86% Higher growth scenario Subscribers (million) 97.6 102.0 180.0 230.0 Penetration 60% 62% 98% 112%
(Source: BuddeComm, forecasts) Background notes to market forecasts Mobile markets in Asia have continued experiencing strong growth during 2010. A total of more than 2.6 billion mobile subscribers in early 2011 and an average annual growth of over 25% (excluding the most highly penetrated markets) have combined to see the Asia region with the fastest growing telecommunications markets in the world. Overall regional penetration had reached an estimated 65% by end-2010, suggesting that there was still more room for subscriber growth across the region. Coming into 2011 there were more than 12 countries in Asia with mobile penetration levels in excess of 100%. Not surprisingly, the global financial crisis had caused some caution in mobile markets across the region for a while, mainly in 2009; after a pause current trends show the momentum has quickly begun to pick up again. Market trend in Bangladesh shows more tapping ground for operators. Because hidden competition in form of filtration of the non-active operators and push of the active ones are decreasing as more calls will be getting streamlined with the entry of more international gateway and exchange operators in Bangladesh. B. BANGLADESH TELECOMMUNICATION INDUSTRY
Page 10 of 18
Page 11 of 18
Page 12 of 18
b.Strategy for Marketing: ICX is connected with local entities.IGWs, ANSs (Mobile operators, PSTN, IPTSP etc.). They are as follows: a. b. c. d. IGWs Mobile operators PSTN & IPTSP
a. IGWs: We will be connected with all the IGWs with adequate capacity. Though IGWs will route the 90% traffic equally among all ICXs, they will have 10% in their hand. We will try to attract that 10% also along with our due share. It will enrich our balance sheet. b. Mobile operators: There are 2 types of business with the mobile operators by domestic interoperator call and outgoing International call. We hope to install a huge capacity for traffic handling which will easily cope up with all the requirement. The mobile operators are concerned about the domestic traffic specially on any occasion as there comes traffic thurst, which is several times than normal traffic. We have designed in that consideration. Another major issues from Mobile operators is the quality of their outgoing international call as all the routes do not have good quality. Some IGW may use cheaper routes compromising the quality, we will check that and send the outgoing traffic to the IGW having better route for that specific prefix. We will check CSSR,ASR & ACD to route a traffic. Of course we prefer TDM routes rather than IP routes. c. PSTN: we will connect all the PSTNs, hope they will do better in coming days. d. IPTSP: We need to connect IPTSP also. There is hope that they will be able to generate traffic soon. Page 13 of 18
Marketing Plan: As there are 3 ICXs running, we need to have more focus on the target. We have the following marketing policy: Quality: our first criteria for marketing will be quality route. We will not compromise about quality. Our NOC and back office will strive to maintain best quality for Bangladesh termination and also international outgoing call thru proper IGWs. Swapping deal: Some IGWs want outgoing traffic against sending incoming traffic to ICX. We will play a marketing policy with them by swapping deal as we will have to carry outgoing traffic also (maintaining good quality). If any IGW gives us extra incoming traffic, we will give them the extra outgoing traffic to them. SMS, MMS and Roam Signaling services: We hope to provide SMS, MMS and Roam signaling services in future which have recently been approved by BTRC.
BTRC, as part of the governments initiative to bring in foreign investment and expertise in the telecommunication sector, has played a significant role in planning and assisting in the operations, expansion, and management of the state-owned Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board and all the private telecommunication operators with the vision of launching a nation-wide robust and redundant telecommunication service in Bangladesh. With the rightful intention of further strengthening the telecom sector, BTRC has recently offered the private sector to take part in the tenders (IGW, IIG, and ICX) in order to help expand and streamline the operations of both incoming and outgoing international calls among the existing operators. Bangladesh has been experiencing a steady growth in its economy especially in comparison to other developing nations. Bangladesh achieved GDP growth 6.3% in FY2010, highest in last 5 years, again over these 5 years it achieves consistent growth rate around 5.5%. The important thing to notice that despite of world economic downturn this achievement shows the sign of stable economy(Economic review-2010). It indicates a steady increase in domestic and external demand. Growth in service sector has become the main thrust sector of the economy now that transmitting rapid growth in both mobile and PSTN usage. So the overall growth in economy and particularly growth in service sector was mirrored in Bangladeshs telecommunication market as well, where subscriber base neared 1.0 million in PSTN and crossed 32.5 million through mobile phone subscription at the end of July 2007 (BTRC website update). In view of these economic developments, Bangladesh provides ample opportunity for lucrative investments, particularly in its telecommunications sector. With increasing GDP growth rates (US$ 57.3 in 2005) and sustained population growth of 144.44 million (2006), GDP per capita is also increasing (US$ 404 in 2005). This improvement is in turn increasing teledensity by more than 23% (2007) and telephony penetration rates. This highlights the significant potential for growth present in the telecommunication market in Bangladesh. Product/Service
Page 14 of 18
Pricing The pricing structure is set by the government. For an incoming international call minimum 4 cents per minute has to be charged. As per the theory of free market economy all IGWS providers will charge the same; if anyone increases the rate none will change theirs ultimately market share of the price hiker will be affected as customer preference will be lost. For the given price floor set by the government none can reduce the rate either. On the other hand, there is no room to change the per minute rate as the charges are fixed as per the government circular. However, all the IGWS providers in consultation with the government can change prices depending on the situations prevailing locally and globally. Promotion The communication or promotion, will have to be very subtle and useful for the target audience, as end users are not our direct customers. Rather the international carriers and the local ICX are our direct customers. For the IGW & ICX, the strategy would be mainly public relations, time to time information on product/service improvement, sending technical information and brochures, etc. To visibly
Page 15 of 18
Customer Care
To have a sound marketing plan in place and full service marketing services, people are key drivers behind that. A fully functional marketing department lead by a director, marketing will be made available to the company. They will ensure marketing orientation at every level of the company. The professional staffs will be drawn from people having relevant experience and academic background particularly for the service sector, and more importantly, for the IT sector. They will, in all their interaction with customers, practice and demonstrate ultimate customer care and marketing practices for quality assurance. At all levels, starting from technical, to finance, to customer care, to administration, marketing orientation will be inculcated. The marketing department will carry out periodic research to keep track with the need gaps and emerging needs and technology options and device plans and programs to meet need of the regulatory bodies and the customers.
Customer Care Plan: We have collected an experienced Customer Care Team. Customer care can be in 2 ways: Service in terms of financial and marketing: If a new IPTSP wants to know about the system of registration with the ICX, he can know from the service desk and also can have the draft copy of agreements and information of deposits etc by online or physically. When a IPTSP is registered and configured in the system he can know his outstanding position and other information from the service desk. Service in terms of Technical: This is basically 24X7 support. An experienced team will be dedicated for this. They will have shifting duty. They will be 1 st point of contact for the service. Any technical difficulties the carriers face must be conveyed by them. They will try to solve and if they fail, they will escalate it to higher level. There will be escalation procedure and specific time for solution. Upon every problem this team know as Network Operaton Centre (NOC) will generate a Trouble Ticket (TT) and give it to carrier so that they can follow it anytime. Sample of TT is attached here:
Trouble Ticket
Yr.Mo. Page 16 of 18 Serial
: : : : :
Problem description:
Concern wing:
: : :
calls having prefix 88 and coming from ICXs must be released after reaching our switch.
We communicate with ICX about this issue. They already solved the problem. Md.
As the number of ICXs is going to be increased, the marketing will be a challenge. We have many strategies for that. Some of them are as below: 1. We will try to connect the best Gateways of the ANSs which have capacity as well as maintains good quality with enough capacity with local switches. 2. Maintaining best quality of routes. 3. 24X7 NOC and back office support. 4. Personal relationship with Mobile Operaors and IGWs. 5. Improving inter operator relationship with all the stakeholders by different events. 6. Supporting the stakeholders at any emergency.
Further contingencies may arise due to changing global and local price war. We shall acquire internet services in a fashion that gives maximum price advantage for bulk usage. Proper insurance of the hardware and business will be arranged for any untoward business challenge.
Page 17 of 18
Page 18 of 18