Pandemic pushing telcos to reevaluate, restructure plans

In today's digital era, while we can certainly feel our growing reliance on telecom services, many of us are not fully aware of how indispensable they are for the sustenance of the life we are accustomed to living. The Covid-19 crisis has shown us the extent to which telecom services can serve people during a challenging time by ensuring their access to many key facilities that are required to maintain the normal course of life. 

A wide array of technological endeavours has been taken all over the world to combat the pandemic, and telecom services have been highly instrumental in implementing the initiatives. While the measures taken by telecom operators during this period are aimed at tackling the current challenges, they are in turn opening up new ways of serving customers and will play a vital role in formulating our future strategies.

In Bangladesh, the telecom operators have also risen to the current challenges and are trying to support the government in combating the pandemic to the best of their abilities. To serve the nation in the hour of need, we are striving to tackle the unprecedented situation through innovative and timely undertakings.

The government declared telecom as emergency service during the nationwide shutdown to keep communications uninterrupted across the country. Providing service under such circumstances is certainly a demanding task, as we have to run our operations keeping the majority of our employees at home to ensure their safety. However, we are committed to carrying it out regardless of the challenges we face along the way. During such a trying time, nothing deserves a higher priority than the interest of the nation.

From setting up Covid-19 hotline numbers to providing people with necessary healthcare instructions digitally, the telecom operators have played their roles in many key initiatives taken by the government since the beginning of the outbreak.

Due to high contagiousness of the virus, allowing the suspects to visit the healthcare institutions directly was not a safe option initially, and hence they were instructed to contact the institutions over the phone. Perhaps this over-the-phone contact module as part of a healthcare procedure has been implemented at such a large scale for the first time in the country. The mobile operators have been thoroughly supportive to the government for ensuring its proper implementation.

Raising people's health awareness by providing authentic health information is another key initiative the telecom operators have taken during the pandemic. Various digital channels are being utilised to keep people informed about the precautions required to ensure their safety.

The telecom operators have also partnered with the Access to Information (A2i) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to develop different platforms for tracing Covid-19 patients.

Because of customers' necessities during the shutdown period, we are providing additional facilities to them as well. Most notably, the demand for mobile internet has been on the rise since the declaration of the nationwide shutdown.

People are spending more time online while staying at home, and since the number of mobile internet users accounts for more than 90 per cent of the total internet users in the country, the load on our networks is mounting. In order to meet customers' demand during this period, we are offering data packs at significantly reduced prices. Even a large bulk of talk-time and data has been provided for free to the most price-sensitive customer bases.

We are also taking a few other initiatives to help our customers deal with some problems that have arisen due to the Covid-19 crisis. For example, some telecom operators are providing digital healthcare services without taking any charge so that customers can take medical advice from physicians more conveniently when they are in need.

Free e-learning contents are being provided as well to keep students' study flow uninterrupted during the shutdown. Such endeavours are significantly contributing to maintaining normalcy during the pandemic.

Along with testing our ability to operate in challenging situations, the ongoing pandemic is allowing us to reevaluate, reimagine and restructure our plans. The additional efforts we are making during this period will certainly accelerate our advancement as digital service providers in the days to come.

Equipped with more insights and experiences, we will surely be able to make our approaches more customer-oriented and adaptable to varying circumstances. The telecom industry was already undergoing a massive transformation due to digitalisation, and the current situation will surely add a new impetus to this transformation.

We have even found that the new work module has made some of our operations significantly faster. Considering the prevailing condition to be the new normal, we are setting our sights on future endeavours.

On the other hand, people have experienced how crucial digital services can be at a time when our normal course of life is hit hard by an unwanted situation. In the post-pandemic era, it will surely encourage them to embrace the digital lifestyle further.

This is not the first time the telecom operators are stepping up and taking the challenge to serve the nation. We will capitalise on the measures we are taking this time to take telecom services to new heights and make the industry more future-forward. The experiences we are amassing at present will always remain with us as invaluable lessons.

Bangladesh encountered many challenges in the past and overcame them all through the collective perseverance and resilience of the nation. As challenging as it may seem, the ongoing Covid-19 crisis will surely come to an end one day and Bangladesh will continue to march forward on the path of prosperity.

The writer is chief executive officer of Banglalink Digital