Norway-based multinational telecommunications company Telenor has no plans to pull investment from Bangladesh, or merge its Bangladesh unit Grameenphone with others.

Telenor’s Norwegian CEO Sigve Brekke shared their future plans for business in Bangladesh, compared to other countries in South and South-East Asia, in an interview with media outlets during his recent Dhaka visit.

Besides his experience with 5G, he also spoke about the recent tug-of-war over Grameen Telecom’s control.

Telenor controls a 55.8 percent stake in Grameenphone. Grameen Telecom controls 34.2 percent in the company and the remaining 10 percent is in the hands of general investors. The company holds one of the biggest single foreign investments in Bangladesh. It is also the largest corporate taxpayer in the country.

Led by Brekke, Telenor is serving around 209 million customers in eight countries with an 11,000-strong workforce. Its annual sales stood at NOK 81 billion in 2023.

Brekke, 65, a former state secretary at the Norwegian defence ministry, has extensive experience of running business in South and South-East Asia. He joined Telenor in 1998 as an advisor, and was in 1999 employed as manager of business development and later managing director of Telenor International for Asia.

He served as co-CEO Thailand’s mobile phone operator dtac from 2002 to 2005, and CEO of dtac from 2005-2008. He most recently served as executive vice president and head of the Asia Region, prior to his appointment as president and CEO.

‘NOT EXITING BANGLADESH’

Besides Bangladesh, Telenor invested in the country’s neighbours India, Pakistan and Myanmar.

It merged its business in India with Airtel and sold its Myanmar unit after the military junta took over. It also merged its businesses in Thailand and Malaysia.

In December, it announced the sale of its operations in Pakistan.

Asked what their plans are for Bangladesh, Brekke said: “We are very committed for the next few years. So that's why I'm saying that the first growth was the first 27 years.

“Now we are preparing ourselves for the next growth wave. And for the next decade or two decades. So we are very committed,” he said.

“The reason why we have exited some markets and the reason why we have merged in some markets is that we saw that we need to be prepared for the data growth in these markets. And we saw that we cannot, there is not business enough for basically more than three operators. It was when people were lining up to get their first mobile phone.”

“Then it was enough growth for more than three players. But now that people have a mobile phone, you need to then be able to provide different types of services. And that's why we saw that in Malaysia and Thailand.”

“We merged so that we got the number one position in the market, 50 percent market position. That we now have in Thailand, that we now have in Malaysia and that we have in Bangladesh. In Pakistan that was not possible.”

“And then we said that we don't think we can actually make money for the next growth wave. And then we rather exit and concentrate our efforts in the markets where we now have a very solid position. So I'm very happy with the number one position we have here and in Thailand and Malaysia.”

He said speculations about Grameenphone’s merger or Telenor’s exit from Bangladesh are wrong.

“If an investor cannot repatriate profit from a country, then the investor probably will, over time, leave. But that's not the case for us in Bangladesh. We are taking out dividends,” Brekke said.

“It's very challenging to do business in Pakistan right now. That's one of the reasons why we have decided to exit. “

“But doing business in Bangladesh, it's good in the sense that we can make money. So, when we are working in a country, we are looking at two things.”

“One is that, of course, we need to make money because we have shareholders. But in addition to that, we also want to, what we call, empower societies. The vision of Telenor is to connect people to what matters most, and at the same time empower societies.”

“And what empowering societies really means is that we want to be a part of growing societies, making a difference. And we feel in Bangladesh that we can both make money, but we can also make a difference. We can make a difference in connecting people to mobile phones for the first time, making a difference with connecting people to data.”

GRAMEEN TELECOM AND REGULATION

Brekke said the six-month new SIM sale ban enforced in 2022 was “not good”.

“And we didn't like that because we thought that was unfair. But other than that, I think regulations are more or less the same. And there are various types of ways regulators are looking at telecom business in various markets.”

“So Bangladesh has its rules, the same in Thailand, Malaysia Norway also, different. So it's neither better nor worse. And that's the reason why we, when I met the minister [State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak] also this morning, we talked about the need to look at how the government and the industry can work together.”

“We are not enemies. We should be friends,” the Telenor CEO remarked.

Asked about Grameen Telecom and its founder, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, Brekke said: “Yes, of course, we are reading the news around our partner, Prof Yunus, but also the Grameen Telecom. But we are not a part of that, so we are focusing on our business.”

“Telenor is focusing on our majority ownership programme info, and the management team is focusing on their business. So, I don't know more about that than what you can see in the news,” Brekke said.

He does not feel that the situation for Telenor is hostile in Bangladesh. “I wouldn't say hostile. Grameenphone is facing questions from regulators as we do in every market. But that is what the regulator's job really is. It is to make sure that the operators are complying with rules and regulations.”

“It is to make sure that the country is moving in the right direction. So there will be discussions. For example, the SIM ban - we disagree to it and some other things that the regulator commonly knows of. But we have to have respect that they have their role to play and we have our role to play. So it's not hostile.”

“It's a dialogue. But that dialogue has to be two ways. So we need to speak to the regulator about our needs.”

5G FOR BIGGER OPERATIONS

Brekke said Telenor was “very happy” with the recently launched unified licences to offer a range of services, including 5G.

Telenor has been working with 5G licences in some of the Nordic markets for the last four or five years.

“What we have learned is that 5G, for a consumer, is not very different from 4G. Because there is almost nothing you can do on your mobile phone today that you cannot do on 4G,” Brekke shared.

“The benefit of 5G is not the speed. There are three things that 5G has that 4G doesn't have. It's faster, but that doesn't really make any difference for a consumer.

“And then the latency is much smaller, which means that there is no latency in the network. But for a normal consumer, that doesn't really matter. And then you can use 5G with the slicing.”

“Meaning you can split up the network in guaranteeing one customer's quality in the network. But that is not for consumers, that is for the business segment.”

For example, he said, 5G is used to run airports and seaports.

“In Norway, we use 5G for roads. You don't have that problem here in Bangladesh, but in Norway we have a snowing problem. So when the airport is filled with snow, we put out the trucks with the snowplough.”

“And they are fully autonomous trucks, no driver. And they are still using 5G. So they are cleaning the airport with the 5G connectivity,” the Telenor CEO said.

“Automatic, that's another example. We are using 5G in hospitals. To take away wireless connectivity in hospitals. We are using 5G for automating production. Industry production. Every physical object has a SIM card and we put that up in 5G. These are where the 5G business cases are.”

“Give us that use case and then we can demonstrate the power of 5G. But to just roll out 5G as a new G, there is no business model there. So that's experience. So it's a more selective technology for new types of businesses.”

Brekke said some operators are shutting down 2G and 3G services to free up spectrum for 4G and 5G.

“But in Bangladesh, you cannot shut down 2G. Because there are too many voice customers that use 2G already. But one day, when everyone is using data even when they're making calls, then you can shut down 2G and free up the spectrum,” he said.

NEXT 27 YEARS

Brekke said he came to Bangladesh for only two days this time, but it was his third visit in the last six months . “And you know it's so nice to be here to celebrate the 27 years anniversary.”

Grameenphone launched in 1997.

“And actually I'm celebrating my 25th anniversary in Dhaka. I came here for the first time in 1999. So I've been here for 25 years.”

“I've been here so many times. And I've been on the board of Grameenphone many, many, many years, and been the chairman of Grameenphone many, many, many years. And then eight years ago I moved to take that global position in Norway, but I keep on coming here.”

“And the reason why I do that is that I'm always so inspired by Grameenphone. But frankly also very inspired by Bangladesh as such. And if I think about all the changes that have happened during the 25 years I have been here, just look at all the roads, the infrastructure, look at how people are using mobile phones, it's just fantastic.”

“So what I think has happened during those 27 years is that we took a bet. And the bet, I still remember it, because the bet was that how many people in Bangladesh will have a mobile phone. And there was a discussion in the boardroom.”

“Someone said that no, this is only going to be for the rich people at the top. Someone said that no, it should be for everyone. And it's up to us to make this service affordable for everyone.”

“And that's why we actually started to build out the distribution, started to bring down costs, and started to really address the mass market. And I think that was absolutely the right decision,” Brekke said.

“The next bet is - can we digitise Bangladesh? Can we make people use data in this country? Not only using data for Facebook and for browsing, but using data services. And I think that Bangladesh has a chance to leapfrog what has happened in many other countries, where it has taken many years kind of step by step. Here people are so data hungry, and it's up to us to then give them services that are useful.”

“And I see how quickly people are adapting to new technology and new services. That is the biggest change I see. And that's why we need to prepare ourselves for the next 27 years.”

“And the next 27 years is to give people data and to digitalise society. So I'm really enthusiastic about the opportunities here.”