Grameen Phone Report

A report on:

Communication Barriers in Grameen Phone

Prepared and Submitted by ZEROGRAVITY

Course Teacher Dr.Faheem Hasan Shahed

Acknowledgement

This is our humble attempt to present gratitude in writing this “Report”. We have truly drawn upon our own experience as student of Business Communication. We have also received help from number of persons in preparing this report and we would like to thank them all. First, we would like to express our gratitude to Shahed, Dr. Faheem Hasan who let us prepare this report on this topic. We are also thankful to the authors, whose journals we have consulted in preparing this dissertation. Last but not the least; we would like to thank Mr. Stein Naevdal-Larsen, Chief Marketing Officer of GP Mr. Khalid Hasan, Director Regulatory & Corporate Affairs & Rubaba Dowla Motin, Head of Brand along with all the persons who have helped us providing the information related to our topic. We like to express our heartiest gratitude to all of them. We also like to special thanks the person whom gives us the data about our project topics. Than we also Finally, we like to add few more words saying that, this report is prepared by novice and naturally, there could be unwilling errors and omission which are extremely belonging to us.

Table Contents: Forwarding letter Acknowledgement Preface Abstract

CHAPTER 1.0: INTODUCTION 1.1: ORIGIN OF THE REPORT 1.2: OBJECTIVE 1.2.1: GENERAL OBJECTIVE 1.2.2: PROJECT OBJECTIVE 1.3: METHOLOGY 1.3.1: PRIMARY DATA 1.3.2: SECONDARY DATA 1.4: LIMITATION 1.4.1: LACK OF DESIRE TO SURVE THE ACTUAL INFORMATION 2.1: BRIEF HISTORY OF GRAMEENPHONE 2.2: BUSINESS PERFOMENCE 2.3: THE VISION OF GRAMEENPHONE 2.4: MISSION STATEMENT 2.5: THE PERPOSE OF GRAMEENPHONE 2.6: THE STRAIEGY 2.7: THE PEOPLE 2.8: GRAMEENPHONE’S VALUES 2.9: GRAMEENPHONE’S CHALLENGE 2.10: THE OBJECTIVE 2.11: THE RESULT CONCLUTION

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INTRODUCTION 1.1

ORIGIN OF THE REPORT

This term paper is prepared for Shahed, Dr. Faheem Hasan course instructor of the Undergraduate program, School of Business at American International University Bangladesh (AIUB) as a partial requirement of Business communication. This report is prepared during the fall, 2008 semester and would be submitted in the same semester. The standard procedure for the long, formal report is followed here as per the instruction of the course instructor. 1.2

OBJECTIVES

1.2.1

General Objective:

The primary objective of this project is to enable to learn about organizational behavior, in practice, and to use the knowledge to offer some evaluation of these activities. The main objective of the research is the communication barrier and its practices in Grameen Phone. 1.2.2

Project Objective: •

To give detailed information about the Communication barrier;

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To focus on the major activities of the Communication barrier practice in its department;

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To show how these activities supports the organization overall strategy, and how it is linked to other activities within the organization;

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To focus on the nature of, and triggers for, any changes in the activities over time;

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To know the manager’s perception of the overall effectiveness of the activities; and

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To focus on the extent and nature of any formal evaluation of the activity’s effectiveness.

1.3

METHODOLOGY

1.3.1

Primary Data:

 As it is a project work in a group we collect the data in a group. We use two methods to collecting the data for our research purpose. We use quantitative (e.g. survey) and qualitative (e.g. face-to-face interviews; focus groups; site visits) Case studies both ways for our data collection.

1.3.2

Secondary Data:

Information was also taken from books and journals and also from Internet.

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1.4

LIMITATIONS

1.4.1

Lack of desire to serve the actual information:

The major limitation factor for this report was primarily the reluctance and strict adherence to confidentiality maintenance attitude shown by the officials of Grameen Phone. Furthermore, some information was withheld to retain confidentiality of the companies.

1.Bulk of the data was gathered from interviews with officials who withheld some of the information on grounds of confidentiality. 2.GP has a lot of employee where we cannot access available information about our selected topics because of the permission of the GP.

3.In every company has official website but they don’t mentioned their employee and their ratio if others operator in this sector provide the ratio of employee in website or any other media like journal or any report which is available for us we can compare it with available information which enrich our research much more better than any other.

4.Limited knowledge of organizational overview and behavior prevented us from presenting a more detailed report.

5.Limited time frame is another problem because we have to maintain both class and others when we work along the report.

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What is Communication Barrier?

Communication Barriers are those factors such as language or sociocultural relationship, which interfere, in the meaningful interpretation & transmission of ideas between individuals or groups. It can also be defined as Aspects of or conditions in a work place that interfere with effective exchange of ideas or thoughts. Such barrier includes: •

Status differences

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Gender differences

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Cultural differences

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Prejudices

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Organizational Environments.

The Barriers that interfere with effective communication are: 1. Physical Distraction 2. Semantic problems 3. Mixed messages. 4. Cultural differences 5. Absence of feedback 6. Status effects. When people are under stress, they are more apt to inject communication barriers into their conversation. These barriers can exist on a daily basis as we may work with people who have different opinions, values, beliefs, and needs than our own. Our ability to exchange ideas with others, understand other’s perspectives, solve problems and

successfully utilize the steps and processes presented in this article will depend significantly on how effectively we are able to communicate with others. 5 The act of communicating involves verbal, nonverbal, and Para verbal components. The verbal component refers to the content of our message ‚ the choice and arrangement of our words. The nonverbal component refers to the message we send through our body language. The Para verbal component refers to how we say what we say - the tone, pacing and volume of our voices. In order to communicate effectively, we must use all three components to do two things: 1. Send clear, concise messages. 2. Hear and correctly understand messages someone is sending to us.

Communication Involves Three Components: 1. Verbal Messages - the words we choose 2. Paraverbal Messages - how we say the words 3. Nonverbal Messages - our body language.

Objective of the report: The taste of using mobile phone people of Bangladesh has been not that much good got from before the arrival of Grameen Phone, there is a single company so people have no choice to use cellular mobile phone service. But after the entrance of Grameen Phone there is now more than 6 operators provides this service. Our main objective of the report is about the communication barrier. For this we need to go to the GP office a lot of

time. We try to prepare the best as mentioned by our course instructor he has a high expectation from us but we don’t know can we or not. For our research we have a good 6 experience about the corporate world and outsiders. In working the group we easily apply forming stage than we are in storming stage than we are worming stage than we are performing stage and adjourning stage. •

Our main objective of the report is to find out:  What types of Communication Barriers they face?  What are the steps taken by GP?  How they avoid it?  Why they don’t take any legal steps?  What are the obstacles to proceeding legal steps?  If situation arise what steps taken by GP?  What is the responsibility of the employees to cover up the barriers in effective communications?

2.1 •

BRIEF HISTORY OF GRAMEENPHONE: November 11, 1996: GrameenPhone was offered a cellular license in Bangladesh by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications.

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March 26, 1997: GrameenPhone launched it’s on the Independence Day of Bangladesh.

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1998 June: Launched mobile to mobile service (Without PSTN access).

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1999 August: Launched first Prepaid Service in the country.

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2003 August: Reached One million Subscribers. 7

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2003 October: Launched prepaid product with PSTN connectivity.

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2004 August: Reached 2 million Subscribers

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2005 April:Reached 3 million Subscribers, Launch of “djuice”, a youth brand, for the first time in Bangladesh

August: Reached 4 million subscribers September: Launched EDGE and Voice SMS for the first time in Bangladesh October: Reached 5 million subscribers. 2006 : January: Launch of Business Solutions- segmented offering for the Business Segment, Reached 6 million subscribers September: Launch of CIC November: Celebrated 10million subs in 10 yrs & launched New Logo, Launch of Health line December: Launched Smile Prepaid & explore Postpaid, Launch of Bill Pay 2007 February: Business Solution Re-launched April: Djuice Re-launched

2.2

BUSINESS PERFORMANCE:

Between 1991 and 1996, mobile telephone services in Bangladesh were provided by a single company, Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Ltd. (PBTL) that targeted the country’s relatively small urban elite. The market expanded significantly when new licenses for relatively small urban elite. The market expanded significantly when new licenses for GSM networks were awarded in 1996. However, Grameen Phone’s competitors have not been able to expand beyond subscriber bases in the tens of thousands. GrameenPhone, meanwhile, has experienced rapid growth.

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THE VISION OF GRAMEENPHONE:

“To be leading provider of telecommunication services all over Bangladesh with satisfied customers and shareholders, and enthusiastic employees.”

2.4

MISSION STATEMENT:

GrameenPhone Ltd. aims at providing reliable, widespread, convenient mobile and cost effective telephone services to the people in Bangladesh irrespective of where they live. Such services will also help Bangladesh keep pace with other countries including those in South Africa region and reducing her existing disparity in telecom services between urban and rural areas. 2.5

THE PURPOSE OF GRAMEENPHONE:

GrameenPhone has a dual purpose: •

To receive an economic return on its investments.

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To contribute to the economic development of Bangladesh where telecommunications can play a critical role.

2.6

THE STRATEGY:

GrameenPhone’s basic strategy is coverage of both urban and rural areas. In contrast to the “island” strategy followed by some companies, which involves connecting 9 isolated islands of urban coverage through transmission links, Grameen Phone builds continuous coverage, cell after cell. While the intensity of coverage may vary from area to area depending on market conditions, the basic strategy of cell-to-cell coverage is applied throughout Grameen Phone’s network.

2.7

THE PEOPLE:

The people who are making it happen- the employees- are young, dedicated and energetic. All of them are well educated at home or abroad, with both sexes (genders) and minority groups in Bangladesh being well represented. They know in their hearts that Grameen Phone is more than just about phones. This sense of purpose gives them the dedication and the drive, producing the biggest coverage and subscriberbase in the country. Grameen Phone knows that the talents and energy of its employees are critical to its operation and treats them accordingly.

2.8

GRAMEENPHONE’S VALUES: •

Caring for customers

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Integrity

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Sense of Urgency

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Creativity

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Speedy

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Honesty

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Empowerment

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Courage 1

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GRAMEENPHONE’S CHALLENGE:

The famous slogan of Grameen Phone is – “Connectivity is Productivity”.

2.10

THE OBJECTIVES:

Grameen Phone believes in service, a service that leads to good business and good development. Telephone helps people work together, raising their productivity. This gain in productivity is development, which in turn enables them to afford a telephone service, generating a good business. Thus development and business go together.

2.11

THE RESULT:

By bringing electronic connectivity to rural Bangladesh, Grameen Phone is delivering the digital revolution to the doorsteps of the poor and unconnected. By being able to connect to urban areas or even to foreign countries, a whole new world of opportunity is opening up for the villagers in Bangladesh. Grameen Bank borrowers who provide the services are uplifting themselves economically through a new means of income generation while at the same time providing valuable phone service to their fellow villagers. The telephone is a weapon against poverty.

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Conclusion: Grameen Phone is one of the most renowned telecom organizations in the country. It's true that with in such a short period of time it is not possible to find out all problems what the authority expects. In spite of shortcomings I tried my level best to make the report Fruitful. I apologize for making errors in the report. I wish total success of Grameen Phone ltd, and Special thanks to all Employees of Banani Branch, Dhaka.

Probable recommendation: As it’s a big company with high profile official and they are highly trained up we don’t give any suggestion. From our research we give his suggestion to our audience and the reader whom are read the report. •

Fell free to talk about any issue in communication.

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Accelerate deregulations of Telecom market.

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Establish industry run telecom consumer agency for complaints.

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Remove common communication barriers between employees & upper level managements.

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GSM cell phone technology is a high-cost solution for universal access in rural areas. Limited cellular coverage of rural areas may only be viable under the current set of cumbersome regulatory practices - once the regulatory environment improves, cellular phone technology may not be the most viable and efficient means of providing universal service. GSM cell phone technology also places much higher tariffs on rural phone users than would be the case for 12 wireless local loop (WLL) technologies. Without regulatory improvements, cellular technology is a practical solution.

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Cellular phone technology is currently not a viable option for inexpensive email/Internet/data connectivity. WLL and other options can provide much better bandwidth and cost of service. It appears that Grameen Communications and Grameen Telecom will expand their pilot telecentres in rural areas (such as the pilot Village Computer and Internet Programme launched in June 1999 in Madhupur village, Tangail). If this programme expands on a large-scale, given current cellular data capabilities, a non-cellular connectivity solution will clearly be required. The Madhupur telecentre recently acquired a WLL terminal from BRTA and is reporting significantly improved Internet connections.

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WLL terminal village phones (similar to cell phone strategy)

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PCO operations - Communication shops including phone, fax, email, Internet, computer training, photocopying, etc.

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BRTA and Sheba do not appear to be very interested in operating end-user technologies - during interviews we heard clearly that they prefer the more technical job of supplying operating service and having a straightforward method of collecting revenue. This provides a substantial market opportunity for facilitating the operation of end-user technologies and services, especially those that provide consistent, high-quality and low-cost services and which

enable the operator to simply provide technical service without the worries of revenue collection and rural service at the village level. •

Grameen Telecom's technical staffs express a strong desire to improve their understanding of available technologies and options for rural universal access solutions. Technical staff would benefit immensely from a rural telecomlearning programme that could include study tours, visits with equipment vendors, and dialogue with independent rural telecom analysts. 13

Bibliography:

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Glossary:

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Index:

B BRIEF HISTORY OF GRAMEENPHONE (PAGE- 6-7) BUSINESS PERFOMENCE (PAGE-7) C CONCLUTION (PAGE-11) G GRAMEENPHONE’S VALUES (PAGE-9) GRAMEENPHONE’S CHALLENGE (PAGE-10) I INTODUCTION (PAGE-1) L LIMITATION (PAGE- 3-6) M METHOLOGY (PAGE-2)

MISSION STATEMENT (PAGE-8) O ORIGIN OF THE REPORT (PAGE-1) OBJECTIVE (PAGE-1) P PROJECT OBJECTIVE (PAGE-1) PRIMARY DATA (PAGE-2)

S SECONDARY DATA (PAGE-2) T THE OBJECTIVE (PAGE-10) THE RESULT (PAGE-10) THE PERPOSE OF GRAMEENPHONE (PAGE-8) THE STRAIEGY (PAGE-8) THE PEOPLE (PAGE-9) THE VISION OF GRAMEENPHONE (PAGE- 8)