Bangladesh's largest mobile telecommunication operator Grameenphone has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with leading technology company Ericsson. Through this agreement, the companies will jointly work for innovation and development in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation in Bangladesh.
Ericsson and Grameenphone will work with regulatory bodies and government institutions to innovate in various sectors. This will include telecommunications, various industrial sectors and the government sector.
David Hagerbrough, Head of Ericsson Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh said, 'We are delighted to further strengthen our collaboration with Grameenphone on this innovative initiative. Our popular artificial intelligence (AI) and automation solutions will help Grameenphone better respond to the evolving needs of its customers and also help solve more complex problems such as increasing pressure on the network'.
Grameenphone Chief Information Officer Niranjan Srinivasan said, 'The partnership with Ericsson is an important step for Grameenphone's telco technology. The technology that we are going to partner with will give a better customer experience. It will build on the company's ambitions and first forays into artificial intelligence (AI) technology.'
Grameenphone's new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed just a few months after it adopted artificial intelligence-based revenue assurance and fraud management (RAFM) solutions from mobile phone technology firm Mobileam.
Machine learning algorithms, advanced analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) technology will make Grameenphone more efficient in identifying revenue laundering and fraud detection and prevention. It will also help to provide more detailed information to customers about it.
The Artificial Intelligence (AI) related work is part of Grameenphone's 'Telco Tech' strategy and also aligns with the goals of the previous government's 'Vision 2041'. This goal includes the grand plan to establish Bangladesh as a high-income country before the 70th anniversary of independence.
It is a follow-up plan to the previous 'Digital Vision 2021', which was mainly about the development of Bangladesh's ICT (Information and Communication Technology) sector. The specific objectives of the plan were to establish digital government, develop human resources, promote IT industries and mobilize citizens.
Vision 2041 places great emphasis on the use of digital technologies, including connectivity, automation, artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies. These initiatives will be taken to accelerate the development of Industry 4.0 in Bangladesh and provide the necessary digital skills to the citizens.
The specific goals of the telecommunication goals are to place Bangladesh among the top 40 countries in the world in areas such as internet access in educational institutions, fixed and mobile broadband subscriptions and internet bandwidth.
According to the Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum, in 2019 Bangladesh was ranked 115th in terms of Internet access in educational institutions, 111th in terms of Internet bandwidth, and 88th and 106th in terms of fixed and mobile broadband respectively.
As other countries also look to improve their economies over the next two decades, there is a lot of work left for companies like Grameenphone to move Bangladesh up the global rankings.
References: Telecoms.com
