BACKGROUND OF THE COMPANY
The concept of mobile telephony became largely familiar and phenomenal in Bangladesh in the
early 90s. The government of Bangladesh awarded Grameenphone a nationwide digital cellular
license on November 1996. Grameenphone has been established by a consortium involving
Grameen Telecom of Bangladesh, an affiliate of the world famous Grameen Bank. Telenor AS,
the main Norwegian Telecommunication Company Marubeni Corporation, one the largest
trading and investment companies in Japan; and Gonofone Development Corporation, a
telecommunication development company in the United States. Besides these shareholder or
ownership, GP’s other investors are – NORAD, CDC IFC, ADB. Grameenphone launched
services in Bangladesh on 26 March 1997 with 72 employees. It has taken lease of Railway fiber
optics on September ’97 for 20 years. In February 2000 Grameenphone received GSM
Community Award from GSM World Congress, France and in June 2000, Grameenphone started
service in all 6 divisional towns. Grameenphone started to provide services to all people in the
country, irrespective of their location. Grameenphone was offered a cellular license in
Bangladesh by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications on November 28, 1996. The
Company launched its service on March 26, 1997, the Independence Day of Bangladesh. In
1996, Bangladesh Government was arranging an auction off private cell phone licenses; then on
behalf of Dr. Muhammad Yunus (Grameen Bank’s founder) a not-for-profit private company
called Grameen Telecom was created. In turn Grameen Telecom created a for–profit company
called Grameenphone, found a foreign partner, and put in a bid; Grameenphone received one of
the four licenses. Grameenphone makes its profits by serving wealthier urban customers. But
from the point of view of the Grameen family and its strong anti-poverty mission, the for-profit,
urban-only Grameenphone exists for only one reason: To fund, with its profits, the extension of
cell phones into rural Bangladesh in order to provide entrepreneurial opportunity to Grameen
Bank members through Village Phone. As Dr. Yunus puts it, “Grameenphone is merely what we
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