Deal marks Nokia's entry into Bangladeshi infrastructure market
Espoo, Finland - GrameenPhone Ltd., Bangladesh's leading mobile operator, has chosen Nokia to deploy its Short Message Service Center (SMSC) and Online Service Controller (OSC) rating and charging solution. The agreement marks Nokia's entry into Bangladeshi network infrastructure market.
GrameenPhone will enhance its existing SMS service with the Nokia SMSC, resulting in a significant increase in GrameenPhone network's SMS capacity. A series of new services will be made available with the solution supplied by Nokia. Nokia will also provide related support and services to GrameenPhone.
"GrameenPhone is committed to providing superior services to its subscribers. Nokia's solutions will allow us to enhance our messaging capacity and provide world-class SMS services to our fast growing base of customers, along with added functionalities and features. It will also scale to accommodate future growth in our network across Bangladesh," said Yogesh Malik, CTO, GrameenPhone.
"Bangladesh is a strategic market for Nokia's infrastructure business in the region. This deal marks the beginning of our cooperation with GrameenPhone, a pioneer and market leader in the Bangladeshi mobile market. The entry provides us an opportunity to demonstrate our technology and services leadership," said Rajeev Suri, Senior Vice President, Networks, Nokia APAC.
He added, "The Bangladeshi mobile market is expected to double from the current subscriber base of six million over the next few years. Nokia is committed to working with the industry and the government to build telecom networks based on the latest technologies and provide world-class telecom services to the citizens of the country."
About GrameenPhone
The largest telecommunications service provider in Bangladesh, GrameenPhone Ltd. presently has more than 3.9 million subscribers. It has the largest network with the widest coverage around the country. Since introducing its service in March 1997, the company has always been a pioneer in launching innovative new products and services in the local market. GrameenPhone is committed to providing the best service to its customers.
GrameenPhone Ltd. is a joint venture between Telenor ASA (62%), the largest telecommunications company in Norway, and Grameen Telecom Corporation (38%), a subsidiary of the micro-credit pioneer Grameen Bank of Bangladesh. www.grameenphone.com
About Nokia
A market leader in the cellular industry in Asia Pacific, Nokia provides innovative, industry leading and market-relevant technology and products to around 20 diverse markets in the region.
Nokia is a world leader in mobile communications, driving the growth and sustainability of the broader mobility industry. Nokia connects people to each other and the information that matters to them with easy-to-use and innovative products like mobile phones, devices and solutions for imaging, games, media and businesses. Nokia provides equipment, solutions and services for network operators and corporations. www.nokia.com
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Notes to the Editor:
Nokia Online Service Controller (OSC) provides online charging and service control of packet switched sessions including GPRS/3G and IMS, messaging (SMS/MMS) and content services for prepaid and postpaid subscribers. The online charging functionality of Nokia OSC allows subscribers' credit status to be checked prior to service delivery, ensuring no credit is lost due to fraud - compared with traditional CDR (Charging Detail Record) based where charging takes place only after a service has been used. As the credit risk can be minimized, operators are able to offer the same data services that are offered to postpaid customers also to their prepaid customer base.
When OSC is integrated with an existing voice prepaid system a single prepaid account can be provided for both voice and data services, making it easy to introduce new services for existing prepaid customers.