Calling your community of customers

What do you call the community of customers who use your product and services? True that may be you can take a step back and ask yourself whether you nurture a community of customers in the first place or not, may be you are focusing so much on treating every customer as unique individuals that you are moving your sight away from the combined whole – a community. I think the trick lies in striking a balance so that your customers feel to be treated as a unique person with unique needs and requirements from your business but at the same time can feel part of a bigger community of users with whom they can share their experience of using your services and products.

I am sure you are aware that Lady Gaga fondly calls her fans and followers as ‘Little Monsters’ whereas Justin Bieber has labelled his army of mostly teenage girls as ‘Beliebers’. May be the kind of business you are in, you don’t need to label the community of your customers as anything at all. But do give it a thought whether it would make any business sense of branding the community of your loyal users with a name or identity with which they can easily connect to and more importantly feel very proud about it to the extent that they will happily share your business accolade to their peers, friends and families.

Again, if you are producing Pran products, don’t end up calling the community of consumers ‘Prani’, likewise don’t call all who subscribe to Grameenphone as ‘Grameen’ only – there is no harm to be creative and relevant. But yes, in my opinion I still call those who use Robi as Robiuls as I humbly don’t like the name for a telecom operator. Well again that is my personal and may be partial opinion. But coming back to the main proposition - try treating your customers as a community at times, then think of certain rituals that they can follow during certain times of the year and feel part of something bigger than their usual self. 

Robi gets a Bangla website for itself

Secret cables from @Robileaks confirm the fact that senior management of Robi (erstwhile Aktel) have secretly taken into heed the request from Bangladesh Corporate Blog to have a Bangla version of its website. Irated with the akika from Aktel to Robi, we did give them quite an earful in this post here, which also included a tip to have a Bangla website. Although we haven’t received any note of thanks from senior Robiuls as we Bangalees usually prefer not to acknowledge our sources of inspirations and ideas and generally claim all to be our very own. So never mind.

Hats off to Robi for taking the lead to have a Bangla version of its website, not only as the first Bangladeshi telecom operator to have done that but also the very first Bangladeshi leading brand to have done that I believe. Please let me know if you are aware of any other Bangladeshi companies who have a website in both English and Bangla. Although just having a website in Bangla may not have any direct impact on increasing its popularity and profitability, it goes without saying that those 1. in rural or urban Bangladesh 2. who are more comfortable consuming information in Bangla than in English 3. who want to know through internet more about Robi - would find this initiative to be very timely, locally sensitive and culturally adaptive.

Robi sets an example for companies in other industries too. Say for example if you are an IT company and if you are trying to woo new clients, partner companies in Denmark primarily – then try having a Danish version of your website too. Just having a target market language version of your website will not be a clear cut guarantee for winning new business but somewhere there is this social element regarding languages in business that it creates a first impression if you attempt to communicate or represent your credentials and expertise in the language of your customers. In the end of the day, you will not win any IT outsourcing business if you have a great Danish version of your website, but your programmers and management included are incompetent and unnprofessional.

Its going to be even more important to have business content in local languages available online. Not only will this increase the outreach of that content to an audience who are more comfortable with local languages, it will also push up local language search engine optimisation, which I guess is still in its infancy.

Business blogging in Bangladesh - three years on

As this blog enters three years into existence with a view to promote the use of business blogging by Bangladeshi companies, I made a few quick phone surveys to a few contacts working in various industries there to find out how they are perceiving business blogging to start the conversation with Bangladeshi consumers. Following is a summary of the present state of unofficial views from a few Bangladeshi executives.

Lack of knowledge

Many Bangladeshi companies, infact most of them, seem to be unaware about the use of business blogging as a marketing tool or social media as a matter of fact, to engage with their customers. The general impression is that since the companies have websites up and running so that should suffice as far as online brand management is concerned. Moreover, the companies are confident that the existing business functions such as customer services, market research, media etc. are good enough to 'engage' customers through various surveys, ATL and BTL activities. Moreover, since there are dedicated personnel to liaise with the press and media, they are not interested to anything which is untried and uncommon in Bangladeshi business landscape.

Difference between business journalism and business blogging

Those who are aware of corporate or business blogging are still not sure whether business journalism and business blogging are the same thing and who exactly does what. They expressed satisfaction that they are getting required hotspots in TV, radio and print media to convey their brand communications to their existing and potential clients, moreover business journalists are already 'doing a good job' by regularly publishing updates and news on various aspects of their businesses, so there is no need to confuse the situation by experimenting with business blogging.

Issues of transparency and lack of rules

The 3rd category of Bangladeshi businesses have adequate knowledge of various game-changing technologies such as blogs and social media but they are unsure about protocols, regulations in their companies about how much of business information can they divulge in public space. Most are fearful of backlashes from within the company. For example, an engineer from Robi voiced his embarassment with the new brand name, is aware of the recent conversations in online space but not sure whether or not someone from Robi should engage in the conversation in the same social networks with people or not. Moreover, according to him, the management is simply not interested to pay attention to unofficial forms of communications customers try to have with the companies. Its not a priority.

Lack of defined roles and resources

Since brands attempt to share control with customers in the social media space, Bangladeshi companies can't fully stop customers from setting up fan pages and groups for the brand, either to sing praise or do brand bashing. Groups in Facebook for Aktel (Robi), BRAC Bank, GrameenPhone etc. exist but what is not clear is whether these are official representations of the brands or not. It could be the artworks of a loyal employee who thought to make a mark on behalf of his/her employer in the social media space by setting up pages for free and attempting to start conversations with consumers. But unless there are no official roles assigned, its difficult to ascertain who the official spokesperson is. Most of the time, brands discover accidental spokespersons in social media who prove to be efficient mouthpieces for the company, Bangladeshi companies are yet to wake up to this reality. So the companies would prefer to keep blogging and social media 'to a personal level and for fun only'.

A formal media survey by market research companies would be useful to provide more concrete views on this topic. Feel free to share your views and the views of your businesses on this.

Aktel becomes Robi, how rebranding gets robbed by Robiuls

No wonder naming a new born is one of the most beatiful activities undertaken by proud parents. In some cases, this graceful responsbility is handed over to grand-parents or next to kins who care about the family and ofcourse the new born. Techno savvy new parents also take help from Google to find out most uncommon and 'never-used-before' Arabic or Bangla names for their offsprings. You must have come across a lot of new mom's in your Facebook friend list who have asked for recommendations for baby names, instantly responded by enthusiast friends with an array of names to choose from. Surely if Bangladeshi mom's on Facebook can practice crowdsourcing then I wonder what held back Aktel, the Bangladeshi telecom operator, from not involving its friends, enemies, frenemies, users and non-users alike to save its face from renaming itself to 'Robi'.


I am not sure if Facebook has the technology to search for the most prominent keywords in status updates of people at a given point of time, but if they had it like Twitter search, it would have been revealed that a great deal of Bangladeshi users of mobile services are all abuzz about the recent renaming exercise executed by the 3rd largest telecom operator in Bangladesh. Some of the witty reactions are as following as found from status updates and the Corporate Blog's Facebook page.

Tausif Choudhury
i m disgusted wid the name :s thanks god i m not a subscriber of ROBI

Syed Almas Kabir
If it is Robi, what phone shall we use on Shome, Mangal, Budh, Brihashpati, Shukra & Shani?? ...And if they spell the name as ROBI instead of RAVI (correct transliteration), doesn't it seem like they're trying to 'rob' the consumers?!

Shahed Mustafa Mujahid
Can we now call the people working there as ROBIul? (this is my favorite!)

Soumya Bardhan - Rahul
its a sad name! and their outdoor publicity looks so cheap!

Mushroof Ahmed
Forget the name..this is one of the worst executed relaunches ever..the atl, btl colors, execution everything..

Arif Chowdhury
Next year it will be renamed as 'shom'

Abu Jafar Sadiq
Can the company recover this blow on itself? A stupid move.

Njmul Haider Mukul
branding name jara select korcjey tader uchit,job cherey deoa. Oh jogonnno


It seems it would help Robi to immediately undertake a post-mortem of their brand value after this akika which seems to be generating mixed, if not negative, reactions. I called up a Robiul friend of mine, who works in Robi actually, to ask him about his reactions. He made sure that his name doesn't show anywhere on this blog and expressed his utter disappointment and embarassment to have been rebranded like this. We ran through a few assumptions, albeit jokingly.


1. Although its common knowledge is that Asiatic was involved in this grand Aktel akika, its possible that the Goverment's representative from the Ministry of Renaming was involved in the task force. This is the person who is charged with renaming major establishments around Bangladesh with a political motive. Its possible that he tried his F2 (keyboard shortcut for renaming) skills in the business sector too.


2. It is possible that the new DoCoMo and Axiata management became so obsessed with local heritage that they decided to go for brand names straight from Bangla Academy dictionaries, rather than considering some local acceptance and norms in terms of linguistic preferences. No wonder Michael Kuehner has some excessive doses of Rabindranath to keep justifying the name with that of the poet's name and its proximity with the mass people of Bangladesh. Surely Rabindranath is close to our hearts, but his name as the brand name of a telecom operator? Spend some more time around Bangladesh Mikey, you will realise what you are smoking.


3. It might be that a talented baby elephant works in the agency hired by Robi, who can paint as well from time to time. So the baby elephant got paid to come up with his best efforts for this renaming of Aktel.


We also discussed how this wave of negativity could have been mitigated to some extent if Aktel would have decided to experiment in certain cases. Assuming that we refrain from criticising the very name, but focusing on the process to arrive there. Lets look at some scenarios.

1. Internal Staff Survey:

According to Robiuls, staff was never consulted or involved in any way in this process. I wonder if an internal competition or consultation could have taken place or not,to ask for suggestions. Certainly Asiatic made sure that this was not required, otherwise why they are there for?

2. Involving Aktel customers:

Say Aktel sends an SMS to its existing users asking them to send naming suggestions to a certain shortcode for free. The lucky user whose suggestion would be accepted would win some trip or something. Or even users whose suggestions would reach the top 10 shortlisted names, would receive some sort of act of 'free love' from the mobile operator. Did that happen?

3. Involving ordinary consumers:

Then there is the traditional way of print and electronic media where Aktel could have tried to create some sort of a collaborative wave of competitions, suggestions by mobile users of all operators, ordinary consumers in this major rebranding effort in its history. What did it do instead? It relied on the elephant who paints and picks up names for brands from Bangla Academy dictionaries. Although it claims that 'Robi will remain beside the people of Bangladesh as they want. Robi will incorporate Bangla in all facet of its work. In Bangladesh, telecommunication sector witnessed massive development during the last decade, mainly due to the penetration of mobile telephony. However, there remain enormous opportunities for further growth as the economic indices grow correspondingly. As the main thrust of development will be rural-based, identification of the name with a Bengali word is expected to add significant value.' What this statement misses is the fact that picking up any Bengali name, as suggested by the elephant, will not reach the rural target audience until they know what that means, if they use it or not, even if its a Bangla word. No wonder their website is still all in English with the new brand name as the only Bangla script around. So much so for rural users of mobile in Bangladesh.

4. What about social media?

Another proof of Aktel's opting for archaic means of consumer involvement is the total disregard for social media. Certainly no other big Bangladeshi brands are considering social media in a large scale, nevertheless, Aktel could have taken this opportunity to set some sort of benchmark in crowdsourcing suggestions and getting users engaged in the rebranding exercise, which if rightly planned, could have taken some viral effect. Its interesting to note that all the comments, positive or negative, about Aktel or Robi is flying around nowhere else more but in social media and through the network effect, bad news is spreading faster for Aktel through the social network. See Aktel unofficial Facebook page for more brouhaha regarding Robi.


There is no denying of the fact that eye-brows might have been raised when Apple decided to call itself 'Apple' and started producing operating systems and computers. But it is to be noted that that is how they started, there has never been any rebranding involved (other than the logo) and consumers identify themselves with the company's products (iPods, Macbooks etc.) and personality more than they do with the brand name itself. Infact the product superiority and innovation has made 'Apple' sound like a renegade and trend-setter in its industry. Same with the case of Grameenphone's Djuice. Although it doesn't make much sense why a telecom product sounds like a fruit juice, they could affort that exercise on a child product brand targeting a certain market segment. Can we claim the same for Aktel or Robi? The lagging third player in the competitive mobile industry in Bangladesh is in the third position never because of its name. So its very unlikely that by putting up a different make up on a Sunday and renaming itself as Robi would be of much help.


I guess the mass consumers and citizens of Bangladesh are wary of renaming exercises. Unless there is no actual value added, or utility created in terms of consumption and the customer service that follows, all this would be futile. By the way, hats off to Asiatic and the baby elephant to pull it off Aktel's pocket real hard. Thank god its Monday today.

Mobile based donations for Bangladeshi NGOs

When the North Kashmir earthquake stuck Pakistan in October 2005, the owners of the off-licence shop on top of which I used to live in North London were quick to setup a donation bucket at the check out counter in aid of their fellow countrymen and women who fell victim to the devastating natural calamity. The red buckets were wrapped with photos of distressed children and women sitting on debris and wreckage under an open sky with screaming calls to action in English and Urdu asking Londoners to donate for the tragedy. Certainly a generous move, the least people abroad could do when their roots back home are shaken and stirred by powers over which humans have no control. Keeping aside my political and historical bias, I also thought to participate in this humanitarian initiative by donating some hard earned sterlings, much to the gratitude and appreciation of my bhaijaans. Their weeklong charity event finally ended with enough cash collected from sympathised Londoners, to cook heavenly aromatic Biriyani, chicken curries and other gastronomic delights fuelled with sufficient supply of Jack Daniels, Smirnoffs and free flowing Stella Artois. Not to mention the night long merry-making with Bollywood music that ensued as they celebrated the inflow of cash, thanks to the earthquake miles away. A night of rejoicement for some, and reflections, repentance for myself, staying up all night and wondering why the hell did I waste my money by donating it to those untrustworthy exploiters.


Natural calamities are part of life in Bangladesh. We the habitants have become so resilient and used to floods, cyclones, droughts that we would lend deaf ears to threats of climate change or a massive earthquake until they actually flatten us. Our capacity and patience to deal with natural hardships also contribute to the inertia we display regarding political stalemates or even traffic jams...we are happy to express disgust and waste time, hoping that somebody else will do something about it. But when it comes to the discussion on poverty alleviation, crisis response and the eventual fundraising and donation - it has been proved time and again that there are a lot many amongst us, both within and outside Bangladesh, to help with their small contributions which become immensely powerful when summed up. Are we thinking anything in line of mobile based donations in this case? I am sure you must have come across calls for mobile donations by sending SMS to a certain shortcode in campaigns run by leading national dailies like Prothom Alo or by mobile operators themselves, like Banglalink or Aktel (stands besides Soma). I wonder how the development agencies are thinking to adopt this method.


It is argued to be a misconception that ordinary people in Bangladesh cannot afford to donate, as its a very poor country. Although the majority of the population may be under poverty line, the rich are either getting richer, the middle-class graduating to richer class or may be the actual poor are getting poorer. Whatever be the case, it does not require a crystal ball to establish that a certain class in the society has increased buying power and consumption desire which is taking them to Kathmandu and Singapore for gambling, Kolkata, Delhi for shopping, Malaysia, Thailand for holidays, leaving Cox's Bazar behind as the buying prowess can afford it. So the argument is for the fact that there are enough people inside Bangladesh who would be willing to donate for noble causes if certain criteria are met.


Authenticity of the organisation

Certainly we will not want to donate through our mobiles to a dubious or less known organisation who just might disappear next week, pretty much like the charity stunt executed by my previous neighbours in North London, as mentioned in the early section of this post. So its important to establish the authority and authenticity of the NGO to convince mobile users to donate through SMS. Its even more important as we as the NGO-mushrooming country have given room for enough frauds (count 1000+) to consider poverty reduction as a profitable business venture only and nothing else. So caution is the best policy as a donor, and if you are an NGO, make sure that your brand is established first and foremost before jumping into the mobile donation bandwagon.

The cause itself
Next comes the issue of the cause, how severe it is, how quickly donation is required, how long the mobile donation is open i.e. right now, for a week, open ended, monthly etc. need to be determined. For example, following a cyclone or a flood, or earthquakes (Haiti), donations are required as quickly as possible. Red Cross SMS appeal for Haiti raised $8M in 2 days as people were interested to get involved as quickly and as easily as possible. So the time taken to donate is extremely important, the shorter the time, the better it is. Other than natural calamities, entities such as Islamic Foundation can also consider how interested people can pay their zakaat or fitra during Eids (a religious cause in this case) through SMS based donations, assuming that the organisation meets the 1st criteria discussed earlier. However, its very unlikely that people will be interested enough to be involved in fundraising campaigns that go on endlessly. It can generate suspicion of corruption unless the NGO provides transparency on the movements of the SMS donation from ordinary donors.

Donation experience

When an ordinary donor is convinced about the authenticity and sympathised with the cause, its time to design the donation experience. You must be aware of the recent fundraising exercise by Jaago Foundation 'where a group of young boys and girls, clad in bright yellow tees, were seen thronging the roads in different parts of Dhaka city, selling flowers at red signals and talking to people in the vehicles. Not only was it a shock for commuters sitting in the traffic jam watching these young people in yellow Jaago Foundation tee shirts selling flowers, it was quite a pleasant surprise for them to watch these smiling youngsters trying to make a difference in their own little way.' So in this case the donation took place from the comfort of your car stuck in the never-moving traffic jams in Dhaka. The experience could also take place during concerts. Say Ayub Bachchu or James, urging a loyal strong 10000+ music revellers present during a concert against drug addiction, to donate 1 taka for 'Mukti' (the drug rehab center) so that youngters who are prone to drug abuse are warned and cared for. Events arranged by NGOs inviting various stakeholders during conferences, workshops are also good opportunities to lock in and ask for SMS donation from within the premises and during the events. Finally the amount to donate is extremely important too. Either a donor can be asked to settle for a monthly 1 taka donation, direct debited from the mobile credit or the donation amount can be open ended. Say to 2525 could deduct 10 taka from my account for the rehabilitation of the victims of Cyclone Nargis.


Follow up

Our NGOs are keen to keep the foreign donors happy with the hope of receiving fresh funds. All the monitoring and evaluation, impact assessment tools are designed to prove to the foreign donors how their money made a difference in the poor people's lives in Bangladesh. But if you are seeking to look for new donors in the domestic market through SMS based donations, you need to figure out your transparency framework for fund raised this way. Unless ordinary donors like students, housewives, service holders are not sure about the impact of their tiny (but important) donations, its likely that they will shy away from future calls to donate for any event whatsoever.


If Grameen Phone is one of the pioneers in facilitating mobile based financial services where we can pay electric bills, buy train tickets through SMS, then we are not far away from facilitating mobile based donations for social causes. This conversation would continue in next posts focusing on mobile based remittances, mobile banking for the poor, but in the meantime have a look at what others have done around, notably M-Pesa in Kenya, Obopay in India etc.

Riding a CNG for better reasons: Part 2

Incase you haven’t read the Part 1, here it is.

The first idea that comes to my mind is regarding mobile top-ups. All our mobile operators have successfully managed to increase their retailer network by collaborating with small shop owners in urban and rural Bangladesh. That way the retailers have another way of increased income through flexiloads, i-topups etc. Why not include the CNG walas in this scheme? If you are having an important conversation while on the move in a CNG and suddenly run out of credit, you can simply get it flexi-loaded from an affiliated CNG wala. That way you don’t have to disrupt your journey, look for an approved retailer and then top up your credit. This will also create commission based income for the CNG walas. However one counter argument to this idea is that, first the traffic jams in Dhaka are so notorious and choked that you can easily decide to get out of the CNG, get a flexiload and come back to your vehicle still finding it to be inching amidst the mindless traffic in the city. Female passengers might not be very inclined to give their mobile numbers to flexi-loader CNG walas due to fear of mobile abuse. Nevertheless, its just an idea worth considering.

The second idea in this line is up for charities/NGOs. Say an NGO decides to partner with a CNG owners committee which has say 500 drivers. The NGOs will be allowed to put promotional/motivational advertisements inside the CNGs urging passengers to donate by sending text to a certain shortcode. Incase someone does donate, a portion of that could be shared with the prompting CNG wala. Assuming that they themselves comprise as an important target audience for delivering of any social message related with say maternal or child health, AIDS, primary education etc. they can become advocates for not only the cause, but can play a role in motivating, urging passengers to donate for the issue. Albeit they have their financial incentives embedded in this model, but atleast it will be meant to serve better purposes. The NGO will need to take service from an intermediary mobile service provider to take care of the mobile based donation, rules regulations etc. according to BTRC rules. More on mobile donations, mobile marketing in later posts.

The third idea relates to urban retailing powered with mobile technologies and the CNG walas. Consider the following scenarios.

1.You get into a CNG asking it to take you to Banani 11. The CNG wala agrees and also checks that he is affiliated with Rosh (Sweet shop) and also to ‘Shada Kalo’ (Clother retailer) in the same area.

2.CNG wala informs you that incase you want to make a purchase from Rosh or Shada Kalo, he can offer you 5% discount provided he sends you a text with the timestamp and his unique ID, and you have to make the purchase within 30 minutes and present the SMS at the counter to staff.

3.You agree to the offer and receive the text from him. So you have his phone number, the time stamp and his ID and your countdown to purchase starts!

4.You decide to make a purchase from Rosh (buy sweets) within 30 minutes of the validity of that token and present the SMS at the counter. You can forward the same SMS to 10 of your friends and if they make purchase within that timeframe from the same retailer in the same process, they get the same discounts or same special offers.

5.Staff at Rosh checks the timestamp, the ID and the number and offers you 10% discount.

6.Staff asks you to forward the SMS to their number and that information of purchase/discount gets stored into the service providers database. Rosh shares 5% of the purchase with the service provider who in turn gives 2.5% to the CNG wala. Either this can be credited as air time or the CNG wala may be allowed to redeem the accumulated commission from the service provider who may be managing more than one interested retailers.

Why would a passenger be interested?

Discounts. There is no question of lengthy loyalty to be shown to the retailer, its all based on the fact that a passenger just happens to be in the same location as the retailer, a good enough reason to turn into a consumer and make the purchase, may be an impulse one.

Why would a CNG wala be interested?

Commission. They will have one more reason to ferry passengers to their destinations, hoping that incase the passengers make any purchase from any of the subscribed retailers in that area, his chances of earning some commissions on the passengers purchase are kept alive.

Why would a retailer be interested?

The possibility of getting more footprints in the premises, more purchases from new and old customers with a ‘location and timestamp’ catch in-built. The fact that the SMS tokens will be short-lived will be re-assuring to the retailer that quick sales take place.

Certainly this is a very naïve attempt to conceptualise the idea of location based retail marketing involving the cabbies, in case of Bangladesh, who make a major portion of the urban poor. While the west is still playing with innovative location based loyalty services through mobile such as Foursquare, we can still attempt to bank on what already exists in the country, no matter how basic and simple it is, as sending and receiving SMS and facilitating sales. I have mentioned earlier about the possibility of introducing location based services which will be extremely important and revolutionary from a retail marketing perspective in Bangladesh. Until that gets materialized, we can still ride and drive a CNG for better reasons, while Liton can continue his amorous adventures and still make a discounted purchase, all by riding his favourite public transport in Dhaka city.

Something I Assumed was Free

Our beloved corporate shill, The Daily Star, has announced something spectacular. So spectacular you will grasp why this has made the front page on multiple occasions. You would assume with the money they get to promote Grameenphone's objectives (more about that later) and promote some companies in a unnatural way -that giving free copies to school children would be standard.

But no. Not even a single copy of this newspaper was ever given to anyone free-of-charge. Its not like there was ever a shortage of paper, the copies or distribution. They just simply chose not to for the Tk 10 hawker price. What made them change? A sponsorship deal from AKtel.

This newspaper is shrewd that it required the money from AKtel to get them to give free copies to poor school children who cannot afford newspapers let alone an education. Kudos to AKtel for picking up on this deal, showing Bangladesh your brighter side and in the process revealing the shocking practices of The Daily Star.

At times like these, you wish the inevitable would come faster. You wish that tomorrow all of Bangladesh, like the Western world stopped paying for Newspapers, their expensive ads and classifieds. And instead rely on their online versions, view them with Firefox Adblock, and post our classifieds on Craigslist. This would be a better project for AKtel -getting rid of adulterated and the ruthless media altogether and at once.

Aktel blocks the call, blocks the harassment

Another testimony of the fact that intelligent managers and decision-makers of Bangladeshi corporates are keeping a close look into the conversation we are having in this growing business blog. Our fleet of business bloggers have been blogging on topics related with call blocking issues for over a year now. First it was raised under the title "Hey, mobile phone operators - listen up! " on July 20, 2007, then again on another post that followed titled "Growing Perversion Worries All But them.... " published on July 24, 2007. We sincerely thank Aktel for listening to us and introducing this service first time in Bangladesh for its customers. We hope other operators will wake up and introduce such innovative and useful service for their customers, it will surely help curb mob-teasing (mobile-teasing) for female consumers and for all in general. For all topics tagged with Aktel, see this page here.

The Daily Star reports that AKTEL, the third largest mobile phone operator has introduced a 'call block' service, by which its customers can enjoy independence on whether they receive unsolicited calls or not.Now Aktel's customers do not need to turn off their phone just to avoid unnecessary interruptions. They can just leave it to call block to filter all incoming calls. Aktel's move to introduce such service, which may reduce incoming calls to its network, was mainly taken following complains of fake voice calls by mobile users."This launch is yet another small step to come even closer to the people of Bangladesh, and win their hearts through developing truly customer-oriented products and services," said Jefri Ahmad Tambi, chief executive officer of Aktel. At the launching ceremony yesterday in Dhaka, Tambi said his company would bring more products to the market, within a short time, to educate users about the call block service.

Well....we would also love to keep educating consumers on the call-block service, Aktel has paid attention to the informal and raw conversation we are having here regarding their service, we would be happy to pay them back the favour.

Congratulations...you are being fired

Md. Hasan puts forward a serious issue in the Daily Star.

Hundreds of temporary employees of the country's telecoms operators lost their jobs in the last few months as major cellphone companies resort to cost cutting measures amid intense competition that leads to call tariff drops.The people who have lost jobs were mostly working in sales and services departments on contractual basis. Mobile company insiders estimate 50 percent of around 20,000 people directly employed in Bangladesh's six mobile phone companies is recruited on contractual or part-time basis. The massive job cuts started in mid 2007 when maximum mobile operators were fined by the telecoms regulator for their involvement in illegal international call termination business. Four companies --Grameenphone, Banglalink, AKTEL and Citycell-- paid Tk 585 crore in fines.Industry insiders said although the mobile phone industry witnessed a massive subscriber acquisition growth during the last one year from 26.66 million in May 2007 to 42.04 million in May 2008, maximum operators are yet to achieve break-even points, resulting in job cuts. But they said in the case of profit making Grameenphone the reason could be the strategy to get more profits with a minimum number of employees. After taking charge last year Grameenphone CEO Anders Jensen announced his cost cutting policy to retain the company's profitability. Grameenphone's operating profit dropped by 32 percent in the first quarter of 2008 compared to the same period of the last year on increasing costs behind a huge number of customer acquisition. "I have been serving Grameenphone for the last two and a half years as a contractual employee. When I was recruited the authorities told me that I would be a permanent employee after one year. But it did not happen and I continued working," said a former temporary employee of Grameenphone, who has lost his job recently. He also said there are other temporary employees in the company who are facing job cuts.According to sources, some 500 temporary employees lost jobs in Grameenphone in the last one year.Operators said they have to follow contractual human resources policy for running their sales and service departments."Since we are changing our business strategy, we have to cut some jobs at this moment. But it does not mean that the retrenched employees have no future opportunities," said a high official of Grameenphone." "We must value them and gradually give them opportunities when we go for new business projects," he added. Maximum mobile phone operators are going for contractual policy, said a Banglalink official, adding, "If you look at the advertisements of companies, you can find maximum jobs are offered on contractual basis."

hasan@thedailystar.net

So much so for the dazzles and charm of a telecom job. The bubble was bound to burst, it bursted. An already saturated job market which does not encourage entrepreneurship, hardly any presence of a good number of multinationals, unfair means of getting a deserving job etc. are only few of the issues plaguing young potential job seekers/holders. Certainly a buyer's market this job market is, especially the telecom industry. I shall not even think of quitting my dear job unless I am absolutely sure of what I am plunging into, as I know there are hundreds of hungry job hunters who are eagerly waiting to grab any piece of job meat thrown at their way, I just don't want to risk mine. God bless all.

On whom the axe falls

Hi. We are back again. I was away due to some personal reasons. Infact I got married. I am learning new things about life, as I am learning new things about corporate blogging and corporate buzzwords. The latest one which I heard is ‘hiring freezing’.

One of the leading telecom operators of the country has supposedly gone in the ‘hiring freezing’ mode in a bid to right-size its employee strength to meet the current market competition. Survival of the fittest it is going to be from now on. The 2000 something contractual employees who managed to get under the nice little blue propeller are passing days in uncertainty and confusion. No one is spared from the scrutinizing lenses of the big bosses up above. Time to say au revoir to the happy mama-chacha references and the happy days at the work desks. Roaring tigers and ‘not-so-worried’ other telecom operators are making sure that the blue propeller does not blow wind too strongly under their nose.

I still wonder in this freezing cold in the Bangladeshi job market, where else will the unlucky ones seek, search and settle their bread and butter? Which industry will accommodate the left-overs of the telecom industry? No idea yet. TBS. To be seen.

SMS advertising: emerging as a new medium

Cell phone subscriber uses SMS as a new media mix tool for marketers across the world in the late 1990s and 21st century. It’s a new window for advertisers to send their messages to their target customers more precisely through SMS. Today's consumers are mobile - and today's marketing must reflect that. With the two-way SMS Marketing account, one can build powerful interactive marketing campaigns that drive results. SMS advertising reaches to target customers directly. So its reach is very high as near to 100%. Very few of the existing medias are so successful. Moreover compared with some mass media it is very cost effective. SMS is a service that is generally priced low and in a few cases, offered free of charge.

SMS is a single short message up to 160 characters that can be sent from one cell phone to another. The Internet can also be used to send SMS. MMS also can be sent on words, numerals, alphanumeric, or image format. The first SMS is believed to have sent in December 1992 from a personal computer to a mobile phone on the Vodafone GSM network in the UK. According to a BBC news report, SMS in its 21st century form took shape only in the mid-1990s. The traditional medias used by advertisers such as TV, newspaper, radio, magazine, billboard, transports, spot TV, email, mail and so one are mainly mass media, except email and mail. But SMS is really a customized media, because through this media a message can be sent directly to target markets, in a way that customers want.

Why SMS is the best?

Ø From the speech of Major General Manzurul Alam (retd), chairman of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (BTRC), Almost more than 33 million people in Bangladesh hold a mobile phone at the end of 2007, so the opportunity is as large as the size.

Ø Over 90% of the user enjoys using and receiving an SMS at least once in a month.

Ø The cost of using SMS is very low.

Ø As a direct medium it is more than effective as Internet (e-mail). As the ratio of mobile phone users and Internet users are 32.37 million/ 4,50,000.

Ø Compared to most expensive television its reach is also very high. For instance, if a private university wants to send an information about its new program it can easily send it to the students who have appeared H.S.C. exam as its not so difficult to get information about mobile phone users when mobile phone companies have already completed the registration of cell phone users.

Ø SMS advertising is timely- deliver at the exact time your advertisement will have most impact.

Ø SMS can target a mobile audience on 12-24 hours per day.

Ø Response device is already present.

Ø SMS/MMS is personal.

Ø From university to grocery shop and automobile to real estate businessman every one can benefit from SMS advertising.

Ø Even an advertiser can use SMS junction, which is a free, wireless service, keeping one in touch - whenever and wherever. With SMS junction, a mobile phone is more than a phone. It can be used to exchange text and voice messages with groups and individuals. SMS junction also sends anybody up-to-the-second information on the events, places, and people s/he is interested in - all on her/his mobile phone.

The popularity of SMS led to the evolution of an entirely new vocabulary, that was a shorter, abbreviated form of the local language. This was essentially due to the limited space that a mobile phone offered. Thus, 'See you later' became 'CUL8R,' and 'Are You Okay?' became 'R U OK?' Smiles (or emotions) as used in messenger services on the Internet helped add the personal touch that SMS was often accused of lacking. SMS advertising is evolving as an extremely desirable method of target marketing for a range of market groups ranging in age from late-teens to middle aged. In many cases SMS advertising can be integrated into planned advertising campaigns to leverage response rates, or new campaigns can be built with SMS text messaging as the primary mechanic.

Data source: Internet,

Mahbuba Kanij

Lecturer of Marketing

Northern University Bangladesh

BBA, MBA from Dhaka University

E-mail: mkneetu81@yahoo.com

Butter up with cupcake adulators

Females have been long in use in handling hard-hitting customers, welcoming new clients, hanging on to old patrons, and performing other roles better not be stated on a public platform. Be it a multi-national giant, or a pocket-sized ‘deshi’ business everyone yarns to have some beautiful-supercilious-adamant-outspoken-bla-bla-hot-shot-more importantly sweet voiced girls in the front desk, at the customer service center, at the sales promos, at the fairs, and sometimes at the boss’s room as his cheerleader, PA (Passionately Allegiant... 8). Moreover, if you are to build up demanding PR, do some event managements or may be networking, you are to get a girl, a corporate one indeed. By definition from no where, a mere corporate girl understands all the corporate issues in a corporate way. She has to have the abilities to mollify the office executives, customers, and sometimes new-potential clients.

Warid’s customer care executives (female) can be brought into attention. A one Natacha has made some of my mates screwballs. When I see them at the University I often find them dialing Warid’s 786 (Customer Care Number) to access the Voice of Enigma ... psst!...Natacha, I meant. Willingly or not, I don’t know, Warid is gaining some revenues through the voice. I don’t have any idea how many more are trying to find either a Natacha or a Batasha at Warid, GrameenPhone, Banglalink, Aktel, Citycell and so on. Not a bad idea though for the companies. Hiring someone who can profit you collaterally.

Literally speaking, it’s not always that the females willingly do it. More often they are bound by the laws of the corporate world, i.e. if you wanna set in you have to make us feel good, or else you have to walk away, and I’ll call the next candidate. I know of a few words that came past the walls of Lux-Channel-I Super Star (LCSS) competition. A lot of girls came to get famous. But very few were given chances according to how they satisfied 1. the even management team 2. the male judges 3. the bosses. Among them only three could top; and here, too, based on their internal arrangements at that level! Any girl who walks in an advertising media are faced with almost the same challenges every now and then. I can mention here about one of my friend from Rajuk College, Uttara. She was picked by a production house that was going to make a drama serial. In the first interview she was asked to wear a Saree without blouse!! Can you possibly imagine that putting your own sister in that set up?

It’s a very common practice at the corporate world nearly in every country to have seductive girls at the office premises. In GP you have the CEO as the ‘Bond’, so you have the bomb, Rubz as his ‘Bond Girl’. Where you have Mahz at the ATN, you have Eve at the ATN Muzik. Where you have Huma in the films, you have Shaoon at the shoot. Things go like this. Girls have been traded as a corporate gifts in some cases. The cooperates surely keep a keen eye on the media seeking new-arousing-previously not used girls. And it’s a secret known to almost everybody.

Now, what’s my point here? If the girls are chosen on the basis of their fastness and skin and beauty, a terrible situation may arise out of nothing! What will be the fate of the ill-looking girls, or the ones cannot understand the corporate culture to the fullest extent? Female employment growth is shrinking at a high rate according to The Daily Star. No doubt, the things I have discussed in the previous paragraphs will considerably contribute in the high shrinking rate. I have no idea how we can come out of these set ups, but can assure you, if we do not, something unusual is racing towards ... ... ... God bless all!

The name's Bhond...Jasim Bhond...

One of the things that Anders (James/Jasim) Jensen (Bond), the blue-eyed blue-blooded Swedish spearhead of Grameen Phone is famous for, is his cost cutting measures. ‘They’ say he was famous for his massive lay-offs during his tenure in Siemens (unconfirmed), as a means to cut costs and streamline organizational processes. Remember how James Bond poses with his Aston Martin or Omega watches? I don’t know why but when I saw Mr. Jensen holding the Blueberry in his hand posing in the media briefing session, I could see flashes of a new James Bond avatar in him. We are perhaps allowed to make a local version of it…how about Jasim Bhond(o)?


Well, he might be someone working on behalf of BCI (Bangladesh Counter Intelligence…remember Masud Rana?) or against BCI….something which we are still not sure about. Agent Bhond has a mountainous burden on his shoulders to clean up the mess created by previous agents Terik Khaas and Dhola Bee. One of the certain things that agent Bhond might contemplate doing is immediate layoffs. Keeping in view the recent tussle with BTRC and increasing tiger roars from Banglalink, papa Telenor has missed periods…sorry profits this year. My friend who works in the IT department of GP is somewhat worried about her job. That is what happens when the company becomes too big. A time comes when the curve goes for a nose-dive and massive measures are being taken to cut costs and remain competitive. My friend is still confused whether the probable merger in the telecom industry will bring the axe of being fired on her head or will it open up better opportunities for telco professionals like her. As executives in Aktel are licking their lips to have a bite on the big Vodafone cake, while Banglalink keeps on roaring big day by day, a good number of GP staff are left wondering in dilemma and uncertainty. May be agent Bhond need to get good directions from head office to keep up the morale of his staff, recent measures to increase inter-department/division efficiency has also risen scopes for ‘corporate bitching and back-biting’, as some bitches and back-biters and ‘bitten-at-the-backs’ appalled.

So the big question is, do you think the telecom sector of Bangladesh is set to create more jobs or we all should be prepared for a big squeeze in the job market, in the industry and in our pockets and in our pockets of expectations too? Only God, gods and agent Bhond know.

You sue because you see; what if you don’t?

Dear reader, before you read my article, I’d request you to roll your eyes on the article of one of our team members (To eat or not to eat the apple?).

First of all some captions with links. 10 GP high-ups sued for VoIP involvement,Local AccessTel, Malaysia's DiGi Tel also stand accused, THE DAILY STAR, GP accused of transfer of fund thru' illegal VoIP use, THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS, BTRC sues GP big guns for illegal VoIP links, bdnews24.com.

If you don't want to go through the above mentioned articles, here, I am putting a sum for you to know what I'm going to talk about. Bangladesh Tele-communication and Regulatory Commission (BTRC), the country's telecoms watchdog, has filed a case against 10 former and in service high officials including two former CEOs at the country's leading mobile phone operator Grameenphone, accusing their involvement in illegal international call termination or VoIP. In addition, AccessTel, a local internet service provider, and Malaysia-based international call carrier DiGi Telecommunications are also on the accused list. They are being accused of being involved in illegally transferring millions of dollars worth of foreign calls using VoIP technology.
Now there are some vital issues to be talked about, and discusses thoroughly. We know that just a few months back GP, and other mobile operators, being accused of such illegal involvement in VoIP business, has paid a large amount of money to the government. At that time the CEOs of those accused companies claimed to have not been informed about those activities in their office premises. A serious question can be raised here. How could you not know what's happening in your very house? The Daily Star writes, "On examining some phone email documents and phone tapping of GP high officials, we can clearly say that the high-ups of the company were involved in the malpractice,” said a BTRC high official. We should understand, the operation of VoIP business is not a child's game. It requires major plans, and implementations, specially if you are doing it illegally. I don't know how they could get away with those amateurish answers. Another important question may be asked, why Erik Aas, immediate past GP's chief executive officer, left GP in such a situation? Did he smell the rat before? If Mr. Erik Aas left smelling this, the question is what led him think so?Questions keep coming. Why GP? Why not any other telecoms? Are there any other motives? As of now, I don't have any information regarding these issues. Is BTRC going to sue every company who was/is involved in this illegal business? If yes, by when? It's really good to see BTRC taking initiatives to stop the illegal practices, but they should also not forget that suing different companies will only create havoc in the sound economy of the country, they must art out some plans to balance the problem on both sides. We know, GP is the country's telecom leader with over 16 million subscribers. More than some thousands people are directly or indirectly involved with GP. Any of their decision will, undoubtedly, affect millions of people of the country.

According to bdnews24.com, "GP's Head of Revenue Assurance Espen Wiig Warendroph had verbally instructed his staff not to reveal the call records of a specific phone number to the elite crime buster. The number was found to have been used by AccessTel in VoIP call termination, BTRC said". Now, what could be the reason behind that? Here, who's saving who? What's so important about that number, and AccessTel? These things must be sorted out and revealed to the public after proper inquiry.

According to The Financial Express, "Foreign call transfer is a restricted service under the country's telecommunication laws 2001. Only the state-owned BTTB can transfer millions of foreign calls routed to the country. A telecom company gets a slice of the tariff, currently ranges between Tk1.40 taka and Tk6.00 per minute if it allows its network to transfer foreign call in Bangladesh. Bangladesh with over five million people living abroad receives over 25 million minutes of foreign calls a day, making call-transfer a huge cash cow for telecom companies. Telecom officials said the market for foreign call transfer is about Tk 20.00 billion a year, growing about 15 per cent. The GP and four other mobile operators were earlier fined Tk 6.15 billion for using VoIP technology illegally in the country. GP's fine at Tk 1.64 billion was the highest."
I wonder how GP will get itself on the track after these consequences. Again, it is preparing to offload its shares in the capital market by the third quarter of the current calendar year. Any thing can happen out there when you start playing the capital game. Once your image has been damaged you are in deep trouble. GP should have never played with fire to make more money while it was enjoying the cash cow's milk being the leader in the industry. They should have planned to uplift the country, not to loot it like the East India Co. did in the name of business. GP's aggressive plans made it suffer, no doubt. You know, it's good to be brave, but sometimes it's better to be wise.

Photo Credit: The Daily Star, bdnews24.com, Internet

Don't like Dulabhai, don't like Dholabhai

Insatiable. Never happy with any given situation. Not sure exactly which situation we want and even when we get close to determining what we want, we never bother to implement it in real life. Take for example a macro level scenario. There had been times when we had been unhappy under begum alpha. There had been times when we had been unhappy under begum beta. Even after the transition in Bangladesh from 1/11 onwards in 2007, there are unhappy voices with the present situation. The fact remains that there will always be problems, more or less, but we keep on complaining that the glass is still empty, without realizing that it has been gradually filled up from the top.

Take a further micro level case. A growing number of voices have been heard particularly from our telco friends, foes and family that the amount of money the expatriates in those companies draw as salary is simply outrageous and without any logic. What is the salary drawn by our mentors and masters from Malaysia, Norway, Pakistan and Egypt? Some argue that there are no guidelines for foreigners working in Bangladesh in terms of the amount of money they can earn per month. To be more specific, the telco industry does not have any regulations in fixing the maximum number of expats allowed to work in a particular company. Whereas Bangladesh Bank had regulated that a certain number of foreigners are allowed to consist in the bank’s core management team/board etc. All these, are words of the budding telecom professionals who did experience ‘some raise’ in their salaries, however they believe, they deserve more…or conversely, they think the expats should get less.

So if we think we are of equal caliber if not better than our ‘dholabhais’, how do we define the behaviour we show when we express our reservations against foreign consultants ‘who are actually of Bangladeshi origin holding foreign passports’ and who are invited to implement or advise different development projects in the country? People unwillingly utter their dissatisfaction over a ‘corridor-smoke-break’ that ‘khamokha bangali ek beta re niye ashche ar dollar e poisha ditese…ki jaane oi beta!’..(For nothing they have brought a Bangali chap and feeding him with Dollars, what does he know!).

So it goes without saying that we are neither happy with the fact that our bideshi bosses are getting an unbelievable amount of salary given the Bangladeshi context nor we are happy when we see a Bangladeshi expat getting paid in US currency which is also high in the Bangladeshi context (actually in both cases its us who are actually getting paid less…isn’t it?). So the floor is open for debate. If we are unhappy that friends from the east, middle east and West are drawing more than they deserve, we should formulate our arguments. Also, if we remain unhappy with the fact that foreign passport holding Bangladeshis are also not up to the mark to carry out local projects, we should be having clear understanding of our judgments. Being unhappy with any situation we are put into will not us lead anywhere, for the time being.

500 minutes … yeahh

I’ll be getting free 500 minutes of airtime to make calls to any mobile from now. In addition, I’ll also be having free 200 SMSs to any mobile, 20 FnFs, 10 MB of free GPRS service, and 20 free MMSs to any WARID number. Moreover, I’ll get things done in seconds either by WARID SIM Genie or from the net. Wow! Isn’t that really cool?

I had several reasons to switch to WARID from grameenphone (GP). The tariff GP was charging then made me suffer a lot. Specially when I used to make FnF calls. One thing was that GP allowed me to have only one FnF number. So, I was paying a lot while making calls to my other friends and members of my family. Whenever I was in a problem I was really confused whether to make a phone call to GP or not, of course because of the amount of money I was about to lose. GP had problems with its Welcome Tunes either. I did not find it easy to install a tune at once. You’d always have to wait to get set and go. Besides, the tunes would not be heard all the time, i.e. when there was a heavy traffic fighting to get through the BTSs.

The list of reasons for moving to GP from AKTEL was endless. But it undoubtedly started with the quality of service provided by AKTEL then. It was really full of shit. I am talking about the time when AKTEL first introduced their JOY package. I used to cry while making a call after mid-night. It was like something I cannot describe with my words. I used to pray for AKTEL either to get bankrupt or destroyed. I will never forget about the services I was provided with by AKTEL. Those were worse than anything. They had some mismanagement in their administrations too. So, I thought it would be wiser to switch to the best network.

I moved to AKTEL from Citycell for just for pleasures. Citycell did not allow me to buy nice and cool mobile sets as it was CDMA technology based operator. The handsets were really like toys. Its tariff was not attractive to me anymore. More students were buying AKTEL SIMs then. Because AKTEL had a 30 second pulse. So you’d never expense a full 7 taka if you talked only for 29 seconds. In addition, I thought it’d be nice to have a SIM than to have a CDMA-technology thing. I though I’d be able to change my handsets whenever I wished. A reason for not buying GP then was the cost of a GP-SIM. Let me guess, oh yeah, it was almost a double of an AKTEL one then (2004).

Whatever you say, whatever you think; as of now, WARID is the best. You get all those free-bees just spending as low as 575 taka. Though I must admit, these are available in the post-paid packages only. But it doesn’t matter, does it? I used to spend about 1500 taka a month while using GP. Now I need to pay out a sum of 800 taka or a bit more. That’s really cool to me.

For now, I go for WARID.

Always growing, but never improving

Yesterday I went to the 2nd Dhaka International Mobile Phone Fair 2007 with some intentions to check out the best offers that were available from the sellers, telecom service providers and others. I have always known that whenever you go to such a fair, you get things at reasonable rates, and sometimes at low prices. I found a lot of people like me waiting in the queue to buy a ticket and to get in.

I got disappointed at the first sight as I was entering the fair. It was not like a standard one. Just some stalls with a number of sellers. Very mundane, very amateurish. Absence of most of the well-known companies like AKTEL, WARID, grameenphone etc. made it more boring to me. I strongly believe that many people were expecting them as well. I asked someone about their absence, but it ended up with no suitable answers. I saw some underground companies, along with a real state company and a University stall. They were promoting themselves there. All of these made me ran out of that place.

I noticed some alluring offers from a range of sellers while moving along. They were tendering some old sets (like Sony Ericsson T20, Siemens C35, etc.) at a price as low as taka 830 only. I wish you could only see people rushing to those worthwhile offers! But did they know those sets were the ones which were not sold when they (sellers) bought them (sets) to sell? Some of the sets were found to be troubled, and some others were found to be of low quality. In a fair when people are in a hurry, they often do not think about these and make their choices at once.

I also noticed a lot Chinese sets resembling NOKIA. Many people were interested in them as well. First of all they look like NOKIA. Secondly, they produce more sounds than Sony Ericsson, and the last but not the least they have cameras. I asked a potential buyer why he was choosing a fake NOKIA set while the original NOKIA stall was standing just a few meters away. He said that he could not afford the price to buy an original NOKIA of the similar kind. I informed him that his set is not going to last a couple of months. Hearing me he smiled, which meant I was crazy. Then I asked one of the sellers about the warranty of the sets. She said no warranty is provided with the sets.

However, I also found some good sets and offers. NOKIA brought N95 8GB, 5310 and 5610. Computer Source brought HEDY, together with some other cool sets. ASUS and HTC –PDAs were brought by Global Brand Pvt. LTD. Arena showed TECHNO mobile. SAMSUNG was offering gifts with its products. Venn brought a set that allows you to add some numbers to a blacklist which would help you get less missed-calls. Electro-Mart reduced the price of its KONKA mobile sets exclusively for the fair. Maximus and Motorola brought some new models with attractive prices. INTIGRA brought Sprint, Malata and ALCATEL.

Whilst there were some good offerings, there were some worse ones either. On one hand, if you wanted to buy a quality set you could not afford, and on to other, if you wanted to buy a low-class set you could not have any warranty. Which side would you fall for then? I saw a slogan written on the banners of the fair, Always growing, always improving. Yeah, it’s right that our mobile market is growing. But I cannot agree that it’s improving. What do you say?

Please help us rebuild our towers

Please write ‘help’ and send to 1234 and 10 tk. from your account will be sent to the aid of the victims of cyclone Sidr. Please try to understand that we, as telecom operators, are trying to make your contributions easier so your aid reaches the destitute in the coastal belt of Bangladesh who are left reeling after the Sidr chaos. Please also try to understand that many of our base tower stations have been destroyed by the cyclone and we have lost enormous revenue due to lack of electricity and communication infrastructure that followed the cyclone’s destruction. Just imagine the amount of revenue we could have generated from airtime and SMS from those two days. Even now, we have to run many of those stations with alternate power backups, which is costing us money too. And remember we just paid a hefty fine to the Government for our ‘illegal’ flirting with VoIP babes. So although we know that we have deep pockets, as of now, we do feel a small dent in there. So we need your help, please give us your money, we want to tickle your sensitivity, your emotional call to stand by your distressed countrymen and exploit it to compensate for the huge loss we have incurred due to this stupid disaster. Nevertheless we are adept businessmen, we have the insight to spot light of opportunity even in the darkest of shipwrecks. So here we are, come as it may be Sidr or Odor or whatever you name the storm, we will always know how to milk out the money out of your pocket and repair our own hands. Now stop reading this stupid and baseless post and go to the ‘message’ option in your handset, please type ‘help’….(you know the rest).


When the powerful earthquake struck Kashmir in 2005, it created quite a stir and array of relief arranging activities around the world. A few Pakistanis who used to own the off-licence shop on top of which I used to reside in London was among those ‘relief collectors’, who identified the call of the hour and decided to contribute to the rebuilding of their nation through that fund raising. They set up a donation box wrapped around with newspapers clippings in English and Urdu depicting horror tales of the earthquake victims in the Pakistan Occupied Kashmiri territories. Whoever came to the off-licence shop to buy bread, butter or booze, could not miss the box that cried for help. People donated whole-heartedly, sometimes they didn’t take the change in return, they put it inside the box instead. Sometimes they shared their grief and sympathy with the shop-keepers while putting out a ‘fiver’ or a ‘tenner’, a few ‘quids’ for the sake of charity and humanity. I also took my turn and donated in good faith a very insignificant amount only to realize after a week that I only bought a few bottles of beers for those soldiers of humanity and good cause. They stopped collecting the fund when they thought they have had enough, invited their friends from Wembley and Bradford, arranged a good party, cooked Mughlai food, listened to Hindi music, drank like dogs, made me sacrifice my night’s sleep and they went to sleep happy around dawn. Since then, I have a profound sense of suspicion when saviors of mankind pop up overnight to raise funds and help the ‘devastated people’ who get struck after natural calamities like floods, cyclone, earthquakes etc.


Appeal for help through designated bank accounts seem more realistic and trust-worthy, rather than sending SMSs to thin air naively believing that my aid is going to reach to the victims struck so hard by the disaster. I am very cautious so that companies don’t make use of the vulnerability of the situation on ground and make merry on my money. SOS.

Old battle, new players

So, the mobile phone companies are getting themselves enlisted in the Stock Market. Let’s see how well they do? If everything is set then we can expect GP & AKTEL offering their first IPO by June 2008. I wonder how the investors will react to their IPO. Will we notice some dramatic movements as we have experienced during the IPO offering by BRAC BANK LTD? Or will it just be like an ordinary company offering? Let’s wait and see.

If you call me, I will ad you as GP will pay me

“Caller tune Advertisement” is all about publishing advertisements as caller tunes on user’s mobile phones, so that the callers will listen to the advertisement until the user picks up the phone. In a nutshell, this idea is all about the mobile users trading their ringtone airtime for monetary benefits, which can be used to publish advertisement. This concept is all about publishing advertisement as a replacement for caller tunes or in-conjunction with caller tunes in user’s mobile phones. In return, users will get monetary benefits like free recharge coupons, discounts in bills, partial reimbursement of bills, free talk minutes, free value adds like free SMS, etc. These kinds of freebies will attract users to allow users to give up their ring tone airtime to place advertisement. Gaining publisher base will be a challenge. A good publisher base means a huge market potential. The success of this advertisement medium will be determined by the publisher base. This new business idea is patent-pending and its owner, TarryOnline is looking for interested investors.

Time to say adieu to welcome tunes of our mobile phone operators? How about applying your loyal customers to be launchpads of your product and service publicity? Next time when I get a call from people, I will make sure I pick up the phone late enough so that the caller listens to GrameenPhone's (in my case) 'exciting attractive offers' advert and then I will say a happy 'Hello' knowing that GP will give me free airtime worth the duration of the caller tune ad played with my phone number. I would love not to pay 30 Tk. per month as my welcome tunes fees, and I would love to get paid instead to allow GP to use MY caller tune/time. Sounds good?