“Veon ’s future centres around an asset-light business model that enables us to focus on providing our customers high-quality connectivity and world-class digital services,’ said Kaan Terzioglu, CEO of Veon Group.

‘By reducing our direct ownership of capex-intensive tower infrastructure, we can focus on these high-growth digital services, delivering greater value to our shareholders and our customers. The tower sharing agreement reached with BTCL represents another step towards implementing this strategy and follows similar deals in other operating countries.

Under the terms of the agreement, BTCL will share its tower infrastructures with Banglalink, which will enhance Banglalink’s service quality by further supporting its 4G expansion, ensuring energy-efficient operations and optimising the use of Bangladesh’s national resources.

“We always welcome network sharing opportunities to serve our customers better and ensure proper utilisation of resources and infrastructures,’ said Erik Aas, chief executive officer of Banglalink.

“In the last year, we have added more than 3300 4G base stations to our network; many of these are based on shared infrastructure. We will continue to expand the network, and our partnership with BTCL will give a fresh impetus to this endeavour. We are looking forward to further sharing opportunities of passive and active telecom infrastructure in the future.”

In related news, last month Veon awarded its CEO and CFO shares worth a total of US$438,000 as part of its incentive programme.

“We are happy to enter into this partnership with Banglalink. Since last year, we have been sharing our fibres with Banglalink, achieving positive results for us both,” added Dr. Md. Rafiqul Matin, managing director of BTCL.

“As a country, we have reached an impasse where infrastructure sharing can be an effective way to tackle national and global challenges. This initiative is an example of how two organisations can benefit from partnering.”