Clicky
National, Front Page

Mobile handset production more than doubled


Published : 31 Jan 2020 09:58 PM | Updated : 06 Sep 2020 05:47 PM

Production of locally manufactured mobile handsets more than doubled compared to last year. Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission’s (BTRC) recent statistics have confirmed this. BTRC data shows that, during 2018, the country has produced 34 lakh mobile sets of which almost seven lakh were smartphones. However, during 2019, handset production stood at 70 lakh, of which 20 lakh were smartphones.

The authority concerned has approved nine factories to produce handsets in the country. These are Samsung, Symphony, Walton, Transition (Techno and iTel), Fivestar, Winstar, Oppo, Vivo, Ok Mobile, and Lava. Apart from this, another mobile handset production company, WE is also expected to come into production soon.

Demand for smartphones has sharply increased in the country, especially since introduction of information technology. According to BTRC statistics, the country now has almost 10 crore internet users. Experts said that implementation of Digital Bangladesh, which is designed to bolster growth in the ICT sector, gradually the country is producing more handsets.

Industry insiders said, mobile handset production taxes and tariffs are important issues for producing handsets in the country. During the 2017-18 Fiscal Year, tax policies were enacted for the majority of local handset manufacturers. Following the two years budget, the tax policies reformed and it exempted tariffs on mobile phone production and import of mobile parts in the country.

Young tech-savvy individuals are integrating the internet into all aspects of their lives, from commuting to purchasing items on e-commerce platforms. As a result, there is a surge in demand for high-quality and affordable internet-enabled devices, especially smartphones.

According to the data of handsets manufacturing and importer companies, there is a demand for 350 million handsets (smart) every year, with a market value of around Tk 10,000 crore. Of these, the smartphone market is around Tk 7,000 crore. Its market value is about 70 percent while the smartphone has rest of the 30 percent. However, according to the price and demand, the smartphone is dominating the market.

Head of sales of Edison Group (Symphony) MA Hanif said, “As the uses of feature phones is increasing, Symphony is also putting emphasize on producing feature phone. We hope we will be able to produce five to six lack phones including feature phone within next five months through our local factory”.