Banglalink, a telecom operator in Bangladesh and part of VimpelCom, said its mobile data revenues increased 115 percent in Q2 2013.
Banglalink’s subscriber base increased 6 percent to 27.1 million, driven by high gross additions and lower churn rate.
The telecom operator’s revenues and EBITDA decreased 14 percent and 16 percent, respectively, mainly driven by lower usage per subscriber, affected by the application of the regulatory directives of deactivation of VoIP customers, partially offset by higher interconnection and VAS revenues.
In addition, fourteen days of national strikes in Q2 negatively impacted business. The deactivation of high value suspected VoIP customers, in compliance with regulations set by the regulator, is expected to have a prolonged negative impact during 2013.
Total deactivations related to suspected VoIP customers during Q2 stood at 0.19 million customers, in addition to the combined total of 1.06 million customers deactivated in Q4 2012 and Q1 2013.
The government reduced SIM tax to BDT 300 from BDT 606 previously.
The 3G auction date was postponed for the second time and is now set for September 2, 2013. 3G licenses will be provided to five licensees of which the state-owned Teletalk was awarded a license by default.
Operators were asked to complete the MNP process within seven months, effective June 13, 2013.
Mobile operators were instructed to finalize the details of the MNP process and governance modality jointly. However, MNOs showed some concerns with regards to the feasibility of the timeline.
The government imposed a 7.5 percent VAT on 3G spectrum fees in May 2013, while also increasing corporate tax rates on listed companies to 40 percent from 35 percent previously.
