| Banglalink Digital Communications Ltd. | |
| Type: | Subsidiary |
| Founded: | [1] |
| Hq Location City: | Dhaka |
| Hq Location Country: | Bangladesh |
| Area Served: | Bangladesh |
| Key People: | Akash Ambani (Chairman) Kiran Thomas (CEO)[2] |
| Industry: | Telecommunications |
| Revenue: | US$500 million (2020) |
| Parent: | Jio Platforms (48.25%) [3] |
| Homepage: | [4] |
Banglalink Digital Communications Ltd., d.b.a. Banglalink (Bengali: বাংলালিংক; formerly Sheba Telecom (Pvt.) Ltd.) is a Bangladeshi telecommunications company headquartered in Gulshan-1, Dhaka. It is the third-largest mobile network operator in Bangladesh and a subsidiary of Jio Platforms.[3]
Banglalink attained 1 million subscribers by December 2005, and 3 million subscribers by October 2006. In less than two years, by December 2007, Banglalink overtook Aktel (now Robi) to become the second-largest operator in Bangladesh behind Grameenphone with more than 7.1 million customers.
Banglalink had 1.03 million connections until December 2005. The number of Banglalink users increased by 257%[5] and stood at 3.64 million at the end of 2006, making it the fastest-growing operator in the world of that year. In August 2006, Banglalink became the first company to provide free incoming calls from BTTB for both postpaid and prepaid connections. On 20 August 2008, Banglalink got past the landmark of a 10 million subscriber base.[6] As of August 2021, Banglalink has a subscriber base of 36.90 million.
Sheba Telecom (Pvt.) Ltd. was granted license in 1989, to operate in the rural areas of 199 upazilas.[7] The company started providing GSM service in 1998.[8]
In July 2004, an Egypt-based company, Orascom Telecom, purchased Sheba Telecom and formed Banglalink brand, as sheba telecom failed to tap the business potentials in Bangladesh mainly due to a chronic feud between its Malaysian and Bangladeshi partners.[8] The purchasing value was US$60 million, of which US$50 million for share value and US$10 million was for financial debt.[9]
Integrated Services Ltd. (ISL), the Bangladeshi partner, was being 'officially' shown as purchasing the shares held by Technology Resources Industries (TRI) of Malaysia for $15 million. ISL then paid another $10 million to Standard Chartered Bank to settle Sheba's liabilities.
In September 2004, Orascom Telecom Holdings purchased 100% of the shares of Sheba Telecom (Pvt.) Limited. It was acquired for US$60 million. Sheba had a base of 59,000 users, of whom 49,000 were regular when it was sold.[10] Afterward it was re-branded and launched its services under the "Banglalink" brand on 10 February 2005.
In March 2008, Sheba Telecom (Pvt.) Limited changed its name to Orascom Telecom Bangladesh Limited, matching its parent company name.
In July 2013, following the 2011 ownership restructuring in the parent company,[11] the company name changed for the second time to Banglalink Digital Communications Ltd.
Today it earns 1588 Taka crore and having around thousand of employs. Banglalink also won 4 oklla awards for having the fastest network in Bangladesh.
Banglalink uses the following numbering scheme:
+88019N1N2N3N4N5N6N7N8 & +88014N1N2N3N4N5N6N7N8
Where '+880' is the ISD code for Bangladesh and is needed only in case of dialing from outside Bangladesh.
'19' & '14' are the access codes for Banglalink as allocated by the Government of Bangladesh. Omitting +880 will require using 0 in place of it instead to represent local call, hence 019 & 014 are the general access codes. N1N2N3N4N5N6N7N8 is the subscriber number.
In 2018, when Mobile number portability was introduced users can port to any operator without changing its number.[12] [13]
Banglalink is the third-largest mobile operator of the country. As of February, Banglalink has a total number of 14,500 base transceiver station (BTS) across the country.[14]
Under national roaming,Banglalink user's can use teletalk network beside banglalink network if Banglalink network is weak or has no signal. This feature is now in trial mode.Banglalink will use total 20,600 Mobile Network Tower to serve customers under national roaming network of Banglalink & Teletalk
Banglalink has international roaming facilities
Banglalink currently offers two prepaid plans. All the prepaid plans come in two phases—Standard (T&T incoming and outgoing with nationwide dialling and ISD) and M2M. All connections provide 4G, LTE 4G+/ LTE+,to subscribers.
Former packages:
Currently, there are three postpaid plans from Banglalink for its tail customers. These packages are known as Enterprise Personal, which is a subset of much larger Banglalink enterprise. All packages come with T&T local, nationwide dialing, ISD, and e-ISD connectivity.
Former packages:
Security Deposit:500 Taka only
Call rate : 0.80 taka per minute (No FNF)Security Deposit: 250 Taka (Minimum), or 350 taka (will get 299 Taka bundle auto renewal package)Credit limit: 250 Taka (Minimum)
Call rate : 0.87 taka (tax)Security Deposit: 350 taka (will get 294 taka bundle, you will get silver member on orange club), or 450 taka (will get 394 taka bundle, will get gold membership) or 850 taka (794 taka bundle, will get platinum membership)
Credit limit: security Deposit+ previous balance (if you were in prepaid)For example, my prepaid sim has 175.42 taka. I am migrating on 350 taka deposit. My credit limit will be 350+175.42 taka
Banglalink Enterprise[16] offers a wide range of products and services to suit the needs of the business community. It was first launched in December 2006. The current packages are:
Before the launch of Banglalink enterprise, Banglalink served the business clientele through a similar platform named Banglalink professional.
Banglalink delivers customer care using its call centers and customer care networks. Currently, Banglalink provides customer care services to its clients through:
In October 2007, BTRC fined Banglalink BDT 1.25 billion for its involvement in illegal VoIP or call termination business. The then BTRC chairman, major general (retd.) Manzurul Alam, confirmed Banglalink's involvement in the illegal trade. In a statement issued by Banglalink, the company agreed to make a one-time fixed payment of Tk. 1.25 billion to the government as compensation for its loss in revenues.[19]