Assessing Teletalk With Other Competitors Information Technology Essay

Teletalk is the only telecom company which is owned by the Bangladesh Government. Teletalk Bangladesh Limited is a public limited company, registered under the Registrar of the Joint stock companies of Bangladesh. Total shares owned by the Government of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh.

The telecom penetration in Bangladesh is about 33%. But this is SIM penetration and the real numbers will be between 24% and 27%. The total number of mobile users is expected to double in the next five years to 100 million. We are well placed to ride the growth as Grameenphone’s networks cover 99% of the country’s population and about 90% of the geographical area. Bangladesh is expected to come out with its 3G norms soon and its regulator is closely watching the scene. Telecom contributes about 8% of the country’s GDP and of this; Grameenphone’s contribution is more than 50%.

Teletalk Bangladesh Limited has continually expanded its network, to better accommodate its growing customer base as Teletalk as to keep the promise of providing better service.

Teletalk offers internet browsing facility for both post-paid and pre-paid subscribers. One can use this facility by using data-cable in computer also. Handsets with GPRS option enable this facility. Through Teletalk GPRS, the subscribers can use the facilities like browsing, email, internet chatting, data transfer etc.

The Teletalk should arrange some training for the development and make expert to provide the service to the customer and can solve the quarries immediately.

Teletalk should increase the functional resources. The functional resources includes here the offering various kinds of segmentation products for their customers. Such as increase the value added services.

2.0 Introduction:

In this paper, for the study purpose selected the Teletalk Bangladesh Ltd. as an organization for assessment. This is a study proposal and assessment and not for implementation of professionally. Teletalk is running business in the telecom sector in Bangladesh.

3.0 About Teletalk:

Teletalk continues to grow and engage with their customers through their clear commitment to offering high quality products and services as Teletalk as leading customer retention and loyalty programmers. Teletalk continues to be a part of the revolution that’s connecting millions of Bangladeshi people and around the world.

Teletalk Bangladesh limited was established keeping a specific role in mind. Teletalk has forged ahead and strengthened its path over the years and achieved some feats truly to be proud of, as the only Bangladeshi mobile operator and the only operator with 100% native technical and engineering human resource base, Teletalk thrives to become the true people’s phone – “Amader Phone”.

4.0 Objective of Teletalk:

To provide mobile telephone service to the people from the public sector

To ensure fair competition between public and private sectors and thereby to safeguard public interest

To meet a portion of unmitigated high demand of mobile telephone

To create a new source of revenue for the government.

5.0 SWOT Analysis for Teletalk:

5.1Strengths:

The most and the important strength of the Teletalk is a government owned company and can easily use the government resources.

Strong brand equity and recognition in Bangladesh

Steadily growing customer base

Alliances with industry leading corporations in mobile services & technologies

The public organization uses the Teletalk as their official purpose, i.e. Desco and Desa loadsheding information.

5.2 Weaknesses:

The network facility all over the country is not satisfactory.

The customer satisfaction is not available all over the country.

Can not offer the Value Added services other than other operators.

Steady decline in average revenue per user (ARPU)

No presence in key emerging markets

5.3 Opportunities:

Increasing network coverage in the Bangladesh

First to introduce as T&T in coming.

Mobile internet expansion

Free Move alliance

5.4 Threats:

Intensifying competition & consolidation in the market

Economic slowdown

Bangladeshi regulation on cross-border cell phone usage by customers

6.0 PEST Analysis for Teletalk:

It is the technique of environmental scanning of any Industry on the basis of the factors Like Political changes, Economic changes, Social factors and Technological changes

6.1 Political changes:

Antitrust Regulations

Environmental

Protection Laws

Tax Laws

Special Incentives

Foreign Trade Regulations

Attitudes toward foreign Companies

Laws on hiring and promotion

Stability of government

6.2 Economic changes:

GDP trends

Interest Rates

Money Supply

Inflation Rates

Unemployment levels

Price control

Devaluation / Revaluation

Cost

6.3 Social factors:

Lifestyle Changes

Career expectation

Consumer activism

Rate of family formation

Growth rate of population

Age distribution of population

Regional shift in population

6.4 Technological changes:

Total Government spending for Research & Development

Total Industry spending for Research & Development

Focus of Technological efforts

Patent Protection

New Products

Technology transfer from lab to marketplace

Productivity

7.0 Porter’s five forces for Teletalk:

Five forces looks at five key areas namely threat of new entry, power of buyers, power of suppliers, threat of substitutes, and competitive rivalry.

7.1 Threat of New Entry

As government is showing liberalism in case of telecommunication sector and opened its policies to award new licensees to new mobile service providers so threat of new entry is high.

As set-up cost is in billions of dollars so in this case threat of new entry is low, but there are companies who are working to achieve licenses and approaching to know terms and conditions for this.

As for this business companies need a well established distributions and franchises network so threat of new entrant is high in this case.

7.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers:

Power of buyer is high in telecommunication sector. There are six market players and players are offering different packages at different prices and a situation of price war is running. Buyers have a power to buy any package which is suited to them.

Cost of switching from one company package to other company package is low. Hence, power of buyers is high.

7.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers:

The power of suppliers is low in case of telecommunication sector.

But the fact is that numbers of suppliers are few in the market but they are competing in the market to make agreements with mobile service providers.

7.4 Threat of Substitute Products:

Government also gave so many land lines and wireless local loop licenses to different companies like BTCL wireless local loop, GO CDMA etc. these services in future will be like mobile phone services like they are planning to offer services a lot but currently they are offering SMS and CLI services to their customers.

7.5 Rivalry among Competing Firms in Industry:

Currently there are six market players but in future they will be eight and nine or even more.

Satellite service is offering subscribers freedom of mobility and uninterrupted service. Satellite technology supplements of existing mobile service providers, overcoming the challenges of large geographical areas and insurmountable terrain.

8.0 Telecom sector in Bangladesh:

Of the total subscription in January-February period, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) data showed the South Asian country’s six mobile phone operators in February sold 320,000 new connections, down 77.14 percent from that in January.

The BTRC data showed, the number of subscribers of the six cell phone operators — Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi, Citycell, Teletalk and Warid — at the end of February stood at 23.75 million, 14.13 million, 10.31 million, 1.94 million, 1.04 million and 3 million respectively.

In 2008, the country’s six cell phone companies added 10.27 million new subscribers, posting an impressive 30 percent growth compared with that in 2007.

9.0 Assessing Teletalk compare with other competitors:

9.1 Customer Care center:

GrameenPhone has nearly 600 customer touch points, including 82 Grameenphone Centers (GPC), across the country. GPCs are Grameenphone’s flagship sales and service points. It is a one-stop shop, manned by professional sales and service people, to help customers pay their mobile bills, change a subscription, buy a new connection or replace a mobile phone, and more, all under one roof. Banglalink also rolled out almost 500 Banglalink Service Points nationwide-these customer booths have been set up at the regional level to provide easier access to customer services. Robi offered customer service benefits to the customers, as Robi will take care to resolve any problem at the earliest convenience. Robi has wide reach with 100,000 plus recharge sales points, more than 26000 SIM selling points, more than 450 services points and 24-hour call center facilities with lowest charge. These ensure easy accessibility. Warid has ten customer care centers around the country located at key locations. These centers are directly run by Warid itself. Warid has another 120 franchises spread across Bangladesh, the largest chain of retail outlets in the country, which is further backed up by a chain of sub-franchises, affinity partners & distributors. SIM Cards, Scratch Cards and sometimes mobile sets are sold at these outlets. Bill collection for post paid users and Zem top up for pre-paid users can also be availed at the franchises. These franchises directly appoint dealers and sub-dealers in their designated areas. There are 6 Customer care centers of Citycell in the country. One for each division and there are another 500 Customer care Points scattered around the country.

9.2 Network Coverage:

Grameenphone is owned highest share in terms of network coverage and it is bout owned 55% of network coverage, Banglalink owned15%, Citycel owned 15%, Robi owned 10%, Warid & Teletalk owned 5%.

9.3 Teletalk’s Network:

Teletalk Bangladesh Limited has continually expanded its network, to better accommodate its growing customer base as Teletalk as to keep the promise of providing better service. As of now, Teletalk has already established its network foothold in 64 Districts, 402 Upazillas, and most of the highways. Teletalk is continuing its network expansion to reach more corners of Bangladesh.

9.4 Value Added Services:

The provision of services beyond voice, often known as “value added services” (VAS), is at a nascent stage in Bangladesh. VAS includes a number of services including SMS, ring tones, games, MMS, voice chat, etc. Mobile operators see VAS as having a great market potential and possibly a major revenue source in the coming years. According to one estimate, the VAS is growing at 35 per cent every year. Currently, the VAS market is dominated by entertainment services like ring tones- which is extremely popular among the younger generation.

In addition to entertainment, there are other critical areas where VAS can significantly contribute to the socio-economic development of the country. The health sector is a good example. In Bangladesh, there is an acute shortage of qualified doctors in rural areas. While around 70 per cent of the total population lives in rural areas, 75 per cent of the qualified physicians practice in urban areas. Due to instant availability and connectivity of the technology, there is enormous scope for mobile services in rural health care. Although evidence of the technology’s usefulness is still in early stages, demonstration projects in the Philippines, Uganda and South Africa point to the fact that the under-served could have access to quality health services and information through mobiles.

Even in Bangladesh, many initiatives have already been undertaken. For instance, Grameenphone’s Health Line Service, implemented in cooperation with the Telemedicine Reference Center Limited, is a 24-hour medical call centre manned by licensed physicians. Health Line provides services like medical consultation, doctor and medical facility information, drug information, interpretation of laboratory test reports, and emergency support information. According to Grameenphone, Health Line is presently providing medical advice to about 10,000 callers per day.

Another area where mobiles can have significant impact is banking. With just a few thousand bank branches throughout the country, the banking services are extremely inadequate. Currently, there exists an informal system of money transfer, which is widely used by many migrant workers in urban areas to send remittances to rural areas. The government is now considering m-banking that will integrate money transfer through mobiles with the existing banking system. In this system, mobile operators’ outlets will be used as payment centers with banks providing cash services. As one analyst argues, “the entire mobile banking strategy is based on the essence of bringing the unbanked/ informal funds flow into the formal sector and make it countable within our GDP.”

The benefits of mobile phone have also reached the realms of politics and governance. In the city corporation and municipality elections held recently, voters were able to know the locations of their designated polling stations by texting their national ID numbers. This facility, provided to 1.3 million voters, was set up by the Election Commission in association with Tele Talk Bangladesh Ltd., the state-run mobile phone company. According to reports, the service got good response from the public and could be used in the local government and parliamentary elections as well.

In addition, there are several other services that are currently being offered by different operators. Grameenphone’s CellBazaar, an electronic marketplace accessible via SMS, WAP and internet, was set up to provide people with timely market information. Through CellBazaar, buyers and sellers can have the choice of goods on offer, including furniture, household appliances, cars, houses, etc. Another initiative of Grameenphone lets its customers know about job offers that are posted in the country’s largest job portal, bdjobs.com.

While the potential for mobile phones beyond voice is obvious, there are some critical issues that need to be highlighted. First, the mobile operators need to think of VAS as a commodity service that will gain from being low cost – which will ensure greater volume. Currently, many VAS services are very expensive compared to voice and, therefore, affordable to only a few users. In addition, many services are based on text, which means that a significant number of people in the country will be unable to access them. Therefore, there is a need for providing services in the local language or ensuring Interactive voice response (IVR) facilities.

Second, the role of policy-makers is critical in introducing the different VAS innovations. Policy-makers must understand that for Bangladesh to be competitive at the global level and for society to benefit from better information flows, mobile phones are the key intermediaries, at least for the short to medium term. Therefore, there should be incentives to create mobile application-services and to roll them out. On the other hand, disincentives like taxes must be eliminated as much as possible. In some cases, tough regulations are necessary to ensure proper use of VAS. For example, in the case of m-banking, forward-looking policies are needed that will facilitate m-banking; at the same time, mechanisms to prevent illegal activities like money laundering must also be created.

Finally, there is a need for rigorous research to assess the role of mobiles/VAS in the socio-economic development. There are hardly any data available for the extent of use of VAS by the general users. Information about who are using what kind of services as well as their satisfaction levels is vital for policy-making purposes.

Studyline

Call Block

BillPay

Stock Information

Music

Instant Messaging

Messaging

SMS Based Alerts/Services

Voice-based Services

Downloads

Cricket Updates

CellBazaar

Web SMS

Mobile Backup

healthlink

banglalink jigyasha

i’info

railway junction

yellow pages

sms (text, quotes & jokes …)

international sms

Quran ivr

namaz alert

friend finder

song dedication

music station

smsemail

voice adda

voice portal

smsadda

conference call

missed call alert

call me back

call block

voice message

Easy divert

caller line identification presentation

banglalink bill-pay service

mobile remittance

vehicle tracking

etc

9.5 Teletalk’s Value Added Services:

Teletalk offers a wide range of services to its customers. Following are an outline of the services presently available with Teletalk:

GPRS

Push-pull services

Like ordinary SMS, one can receive answer to a question s/he asks. By using this push-pull service, one can have the latest updates of important cricket matches. Besides, other important information like weather forecast, prayer time, quotes, horoscopes and especially sehri-iftar timing during Ramadan are also available.

SMS

An SMS of 160 characters each available both in English and Bangla.

ISD and EISD

Every subscriber of Teletalk gets the opportunity of Economic ISD or EISD in 55 countries @ reduced rate per minute. Under this facility, the subscriber should dial 012, then country code, then area code and finally the desired number – instead of dialing access code 00.

DESA Load shedding push-pull service

First time in Bangladesh, Teletalk with co-operation from DESA has instituted a service for consumers to obtain evening load shedding schedule through SMS. With minimal charging of Taka 1.00 per SMS, this service is a welcomed addition to the citizens of Dhaka Metropolitan area that comes under auspices of DESA services.

Mobile Applications through GPRS

Teletalk has also introduced in collaboration with various content providers some Java Mobile applications. Not able among them are “Cricket Update” and “Bangla SMS”.

Voice SMS

Teletalk has introduced “Voice SMS” service for it customers to send voice message.

10.0 Assessment Result:

From the assessment of Teletalk, it is found that though the company is owned by the government but the services is not take it to the leading position of Bangladesh. Because for the telecom mobile sector the network is the main considerable factor. Because if the network is not expanded to the nation wide customer will not get the service properly. After that result many important issue they will miss and ultimately the customer will switching from another company.

After sales service is another issue for the highly technical matters. The telecom mobile sector is also a high tech sector. The general people can not easily understand the matter. It is important that any business keeps its customers happy. This is because, financially, it costs five times as much to gain a new customer as it does to keep an existing one. As it operates in a highly competitive sector, Teletalk must offer excellent customer service or customers will go to rival businesses. From the finding it is found that GrameenPhone has nearly 600 customer care and 82 Grameenphone Centers (GPC), Banglalink has 500 Banglalink Service point, Robi has more than 450 service center and Warid has 10 customer care and 120 franchises spread across all over the country. Here the Teletalk has only 21 customer care center all over the country.

Human Resources, who provide the customer services should be well trained and expert. If the agent takes too long time to serve or can not provide the service in just time the customer will become dissatisfy. The agents of Teletalk are not enough experts to provide services.

The market leader, Grameenphone offers the EDGE services for the internet browsing where as Teletalk offers only the GPRS that is not fast as the EDGE service. Grameenphome offers various bundle offers for the internet browsing. But the Teletalk have only one bundle offer for the customer.

Value Added Services (VAS) is the one of the important issues to become successful in the telecommunication industry in Bangladesh. The other operators provide a lot of services including, Studyline is for the students help line to get various help for their study purpose; Stock Information is providing for Share holder Business Men and offer live information on DSE and CSE stock price of listed companies, summary of subscribed stocks in portfolio, daily and weekly graphs on prices of individual companies, latest news from DSE and CSE, performance of market (top 5 gainers/losers)

BillPay offer is for the paying bills for Electricity, GAS, Water and other services.

CellBazaar is the virtual market offer by the Grameenphone and is a very popular virtual market in Bangladesh. Any one can buy and sell any product through this.

Railway junction is for the gathering railway information Ticket Booking and ticket purchasing.

Vehicle tracking is for monitoring and safeguarding any vehicle is now possible sitting at home! Track vehicle tracking system is a state-of-the-art service which enables anyone to track a vehicle or a fleet to ensure better security of vehicles by reducing auto theft which is an alarming issue these days in major metro areas. With this service, you can even switch off your car from a remote location. All you need is a gprs enabled handset and a Banglalink data package to go to internet and you can monitor the vehicle live.

Mobile remittance is a service through this anyone can get the remittance through the mobile and withdraw from the customer care center.

But the Teletalk is offering only a limited services and offer for their customers.

11.0 Procedure to implementation of Change:

Evolutionary Change – is described as incremental, gradual and narrowly focused. This change is constant. Evolutionary change may be a carefully developed, long-term goal that an organization is moving toward. One tool that can promote and direct evolutionary change is strategic planning. Under this types Teletalk’s change on the human resources training procedures, the structural developments those takes gradually explanation, the cultural change is reveled. Mainly the telecom operators can not expand their network expansion within a day. The added services can not develop in a short time. So the procedure is become under the evolutionary change process.

12.0 Proposal for Change:

For the Batter performance, Teletalk need to change the following area

12.1 Human Resources:

Human resources are an organization’s most important asset. Ultimately an organization’s distinctive competences lie in the skills and abilities of its employees. Because these skills and abilities give an organization a competitive advantage, organizations must continually monitor their structures to find the most effective way of motivating and organizing human resources to acquire and use their skills.

The Teletalk should arrange some training for the development and make expert to provide the service to the customer and can solve the quarries immediately.

12.2 Functional Resources:

As discussed in previous chapters, each organizational function needs to develop procedures that allow ii to manage the particular environment it faces. As the environment changes.

12.3 Organizational Capabilities:

Through the design of organizational structure and culture, an organization can harness its human and functional resources to take advantage of technological opportunities. Organizational change often involves changing the relationships between people and functions to increase their ability to create value.

Teletalk, though is a government owned company so can easily increase its organizational capability. The organizational capability includes increasing the customer care center, network base station etc.

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