Robi suffers loss of Tk 444 million over investment in network upgrade

Robi, one of the leading digital service providers of Bangladesh, has incurred a loss of Tk 444 million in the second quarter due to extensive investment in their network and increased market rate, it said in a statement on Friday.

The second largest mobile network operator in the country has created the largest 4.5G network in the country with 7,000 4.5G sites, covering 532 upazilas in the country, enabling two in three citizens to have access to Robi’s 4.5G network in all 64 districts.

Robi had begun operating 6,100 4.5G sites by the end of second quarter of 2018 and had its subscriber base reach 44.7 million, representing 29.6 percent of subscriber market share.

The company released its financial results for the second quarter on Friday, stating that in the April-June period there was overall service revenue growth of 6.6 percent despite the 4.2 percent decline in the company’s voice revenue.

Robi earned a total of Tk 16.5 billion in revenue, the statement said.

However, due to continuous investment in nationwide 4.5G network expansion and capacity enhancement, coupled with the increased borrowing rate in the market, Robi incurred a loss of Tk 444 million.

The continued aggressive investment to fast-track its 4.5G network expansion and improve its 3.5G/2.5G network quality has raised Robi’s total CAPEX investment figure to Tk 222.1 billion since the company’s inception.

In the second quarter of 2018 alone, the company made CAPEX investment of Tk 5.5 billion. The sustained investment has helped the company extend its network coverage across the country with 10,894 sites, out of which 6,100 were 4.5G sites. By the middle of August 2018, the total number of 4.5G sites reached 7,000.

“The impact of creating the largest 4.5G network was clearly visible in second quarter of 2018, as it helped us to ramp up our data revenue growth. Our customised product offerings catering to seasonal customer demands, for example sport entertainment app “My Sports,” Islamic app ‘Noor’ that has features like hajj tracking, zakat payment also helped,” said Robi’s Managing Director Mahtab Uddin Ahmed.