Bangladesh Telecoms Industry Report: 2024-2031

This report provides analyses of revenue and market forecasts as well as statistics of the Bangladesh telecoms industry including market sizing, 10-year forecasts, market insights, key telecom trends, 5G and also features the following: Overall Telecommunications Market by Major Operators Telco Operators Profile, Revenue and EBITDA Mix Mobile Subscribers & Revenue Market Overview and Forecasts.

Why You Should Buy The Bangladesh Telecoms Industry Report:

•  Benefit from the latest market opportunities
•  Understand the threats to your operations and investments and protect your company against future risks
•  Gain insights on emerging trends supporting, enhancing or disrupting your activities in the market
•  Get a full view of the competitive landscape to assess your market position.
•  Forecasts as a key input for successful budgeting and strategic business planning in the telecoms market
•  Target business opportunities and risks in the telecoms sector through our reviews of latest industry trends, regulatory changes and major deals, projects and investments
•  Assess the activities, strategy and market position of your competitors, partners and clients via our Operators Profiles

The Bangladesh Telecommunications Industry Report, 2024-2031 includes a comprehensive review of the Bengali market dynamics, market sizing, market forecasts, analysis, insights and key trends.

Bangladesh Telecoms Industry Report at a Glance

Bangladesh’s dynamic and understudied telecommunications market is one of the remaining last frontier offering investment opportunities in mobile and fixed digital infrastructure. Although Bangladesh’s greenfield telecom market holds huge potential, opportunities must be viewed in light of real challenges, including a lack of physical supporting infrastructure and stable and reliable power transmission and distribution. Regulatory uncertainties, byzantine licensing and adverse weather events remain a hindrance to fixed and mobile operators as well as towercos to invest further in telecommunications digital infrastructure.

The publisher forecasts that mobile subscriptions will grow and fixed broadband subscribers during over the period 2024-2031. The country will add nearly 55m Internet users by 2031 growing at an annual average rate of 5.9% in the forecast period.

Growing mobile phone penetration and growing fixed broadband take-up among households will fuel future growth over the next eight years. The publisher that mobile subscriptions will grow at an annual average rate of 2.5% in 2024-31 and fixed broadband subscribers at an average rate of 9.3% over the same period. Internet user penetration will increase at an annual average rate of 12% in the 2024-31 forecast period with an estimated 39% of the population connected to the Internet in 2023 growing to 80.2% by 2031.

Currently, fast Internet in Bangladesh is primarily available in the urban regions in Dhaka and Chittagong. Outside the main cities, the Internet connection in Bangladesh tends to be slow and expensive.

Capex Investments

Expanded coverage, greater affordability, service improvements, increased data usage and smartphone penetration are the main drivers of growth in the telecoms sector. The country continues to expand its fibre-optic network and 4G coverage, backed by increasing investment in capital expenditure. Investments in the telecoms sector grew at an annual average rate of 4.3% in 2017-23. Telecommunications service providers are expected to maintain growth momentum in 2024-31, to an average rate of 6.1%.

Operator Profiles

The Benglai four-player mobile market is a remarkably stable market, however with mobile revenue pressure, all operators are broadening their range of services from e-commerce, smart home to digital payments.

The telecommunications market is dominated by three large mobile operators - Grameephone, Robi and Banglalink - with mobile-only infrastructure competing with the incumbent Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTLC) which also operates Teletalk the smallest mobile operator in the country. Other emerging fibre broadband operators, Carnival Internet, DOT Internet, Link3, KS Network, Carnival, Triangle, Optimax, Infobase and Infolink among hundreds remain small, sub-scale and expensive.

Between 2017 and 2023, both both revenue and EBITDA shares remained remarkably stable, with Banglalink losing some share of the telecoms market Revenue & EBITDA following a late 4G upgrade.

Mobile Subscribers and Revenue

Average annual mobile revenue growth was much lower (5.8%) than mobile service subscriptions growth (5.9%) during the period 2017-2023, highlighting a fairly stable market in terms of ARPU for mobile operators. Declining voice & SMS revenue are offset by wireless data monetisation which came late to the market, competitive pressure on ARPU are likely to occur, compounded by bundling discounts to stem churn.

According to our benchmark study of mobile data pricing, Bangladesh had among the biggest cost reduction per GB over the last 3 years, while India has the lowest rate in the world with just a few cents per GB.

The Bengali mobile market is rapidly transforming from a voice and SMS to a mobile data-dominated market. With a continued drive to convert smartphones users to digital shoppers and therefore increasing mobile operators’ consumers share of wallet. Mobile operators are increasing market segmentation and deliver innovative offerings targeting households with digital services such as music, video streaming, digital payments and bundles of other services such as home automation, IPTV and fixed broadband.

Broadband Subscribers - FTTH Push to Gigabit Speeds

After many years of under investments in fibre infrastructure, Bangladesh boasts among the lowest FTTH penetration in the world and among the most fragmented market with mobile operators not playing in the market due to licensing issues. Most people use only 5-10Mbps packages with pricing caps mandated by the regulator.

Fixed broadband penetration is forecasted to grow strongly as Bangladesh’s investments in full-fibre networks are still small in scale with many premises yet to be passed.

Thematics - Telecoms Infrastructure/5G/M&A/Infrastructure

Infrastructure funds, pension funds and government funds are assigning high valuation multiples to telecommunications infrastructure assets such as mobile towers, data centres, submarine cable and fibre infrastructure.

Investment funds are assigning high valuation multiples to telecommunications infrastructure assets such as mobile towers, data centres, submarine cable and fibre infrastructure. This report outlines some real market examples of how investors view and value these investments with real industry examples and EV/EBITDA comparatives and benchmarks.

Our Bangladesh Telecoms Industry Report transactions database analysis highlights the dearth of inbound (domestic) transactions in the Bangladesh telecommunications services market, with the largest transactions in towercos and small stakes sale down in mobile operators.

The arrival of 4G moved the Internet off our desktops into our palms and pockets, 5G could transform the network from something we carry around to something taking us around either virtually (augmented reality or virtual reality) or in reality (autonomous vehicles), the 5G outcome and benefits beyond fast connectivity remain largely unknown in terms of business models, investments required and timeline.