Market Share %

3%
2%
2%
1%
1%
0%

The chart at left

the
down-ward
direction
of
Source:
http://www.btrc.gov.bd/telco/mobile
Citycells market position. Its debt
of 477 crores to BTRC, Citycells majority share holder SingTels loss of 29 million
Singaporean dollars within a year are some points to portray the current financial
position of Citycell.
shows

Citycell is the only telecom operator to use CDMA platform in Bangladesh, though it
has applied for the license for GSM to BTCL, the regulatory body of the country.
Citycell is not the only example in the world to switch to the most popular platform.
Bell and Tellus in Canada are already in this process of transformation. Between the
competition between GSM and CDMA, GSM is enjoying 82% market share globally.
So was it a mistake for Citycell to go for the less popular platform? Citycell emerged
in the sector in 1993, when CDMA was the hot technology in the field. Though CDMA
is a more advanced technology than GSM, but not the popular one. CDMA needs a
unique code to decipher the data sent over the network. This requirement, though
makes the process secure and efficient, steals the opportunity of the users to switch
handsets, because handsets have to be permitted by the service provider. This
creates the issue of handset compatibility, which is the main reason CDMA is
lagging behind in popularity in Bangladesh like other countries.

The users dont really care about the platform, CDMA or GSM; they want flexibility.
Unlike 90s people now choose handsets at first, then go for the network choice
decision. Sometimes they switch between providers. All of these scenarios do not
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support to choose Citycell as their option. In 2008-09, Citycell seemed to acquire

some pace in subscriber number but with the advent of smartphone, it saw a major
loophole in its strategy to offer low cost ZTE sets. Not only the cheap sets failed to
make a status statement but the availability of many cheap but fashionable sets
waivered the users to switch to other GSM providers. Citycells only bargain was
cheap call rate which let it breathe the last years. But people are switching to other
providers, either keeping Citycell as their secondary option or leaving it completely.
From 2012, Singtel has stopped investing in Citycell. Subsequently Citycell has not
promoted new sets or been able to provide services for the past sets. People, using
Citycell as their secondary option, after sufficient depreciation of their ZTE sets are
dumping them. The last spark in the debacle of Citycells subscribers number is the
governments compulsory biometric sim registration. Because Citycell had fewer
registration centers, lack of sufficient remuneration did little to encourage the users
to take the hassle of registration.
Investigating as an outsider, it seems that the problems associated with Citycell are
broadly decision making issues, mainly strategic mistakes. The decision of
continuing to provide under CDMA platform has been proved as risky and expensive
one. The decision to switch to GSM have been delayed way too long. Switching
platforms is not very common around the world; so Citycell needed visionary
leadership. Probably a change in top level management in 2010 was an attempt to
introduce new leadership but it did not bring CItycell out of its closet of problems. It
is heard that Citycell has looked for investors, but failed to persuade anyone. This
fact again is a subsequent result of long term vision.

Though Citycells vision includes providing innovative solutions, it was

unsuccessful in introducing any innovative solution to the problem. Verizon, in US
market, launched their CDMA based service in 2000, much later than Citycell in
Bangladesh. Verizon has been successful to hold more than 30% share in the
market through a loyal customer community. Verizon has ensured the best network
coverage and quality, call rate and a diversity in phone sets. Couldnt Citycell do the
same? Despite once having the upper hand, Citycell failed to make the best network
coverage; their customer satisfaction level is miserable; products lack diversity and
promotion is alien to their strategy.

Though Citycells cease of network expansion has decreased customer satisfaction

to great deal, it was not all along a bad idea. Other operators around the world, like
Bell(Canada), Tellus(Canda), Reliance(india) have also stopped expanding their
CDMA network but either they proceeded to 4G LTE, which is a GSM based standard
or transformed to 2G/3G GSM network. BTCL is going to auction for 4G spectrum.
Though Citycell might be planning to switch to GSM; it would be much better idea to
wait for 4G LTE spectrum. In that case they would not be needing the license for
GSM and they could avoid the handset compatibility issue. But LTE compatible
handsets are expensive and the infrastructure cost is huge. But this is where the
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telecom industry is approaching. Under the umbrella of LTE, there will be no

discrimination between CDMA and GSM networks.

Citycells ZoomTM Ultra has allowed the provider to still exist in the competition in
regards of internet data comparing to voice data. The parenting company Pacific
Bangladesh Telecom limited has a nationwide transmission backhaul network with
fiber optic and Microwave backbone. They could use these resources to bolster their
internet data connection, but they probably did not use the full potential of the
resources.

After the advent of social networks, marketing has reached a new level. At minimal
cost, subscribers can be reached with the advertisements and promotions. To
illustrate Citycells immense deficiency in marketing a comparison is given below:

Operator

Subscribers as per
BTCL website in June,
2016 (in millions)

Total number of likes

in Facebook official
page till 17/08/16

Ratio=
likes/Subscribers

Grameen
Phone
Banglalink
Robi
Airtel
Teletalk
Citycell

56.909

7,801,507

0.14

31.941
27.442
9.892
4.49
0.702

7,276,471
7,479,244
5,870,980
1,044,400
0,113,245

0.23
0.27
0.6
0.22
0.16

Citycell is still using EV-DO RevA technology, whereas RevC is the newest in this
field. EV-DO cannot provide voice and data at a time. So while making a call,
internet data cannot be used. This is a major drawback, which is solved in SVDO
system. CItycell is far from accepting this technology.

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** Citycell was fined taka 150 cr in 2008 for illegal VoIP involvement

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