Ericsson to help Grameenphone fulfil its AI ambitions

It's a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to be precise, one that establishes a framework for collaboration on automation as well as AI. Being an MoU, details are fairly scant, but their agreement encompasses technology trials, workshops, and pilot projects.

Together, Ericsson and Grameenphone will also engage with industry partners, regulators, and government bodies in an effort to promote innovation in various sectors of the economy, including telecoms, various industry verticals, and the public sector.

"We are thrilled to build upon our collaboration with Grameenphone in this innovative initiative. Our award-winning AI and Automation solutions will allow Grameenphone to respond even better to the evolving needs of its customers and meet the increasingly complex demands on the network," said David Hägerbro, head of Ericsson Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Niranjan Srinivasan, Grameenphone's chief information officer, said: "Partnering with Ericsson is a key step towards the telco tech vision of Grameenphone. The technology that we intend to collaborate on will transform and deliver a superior experience for our customers built on our common AI-first approach and ambition."

The MoU comes mere months after Grameenphone tapped up Mobileum for an AI-infused revenue assurance and fraud management (RAFM) solution.

The aim is to use machine learning algorithms, advanced analytics, and AI in hopes of making Grameenphone better at identifying and preventing revenue leakage, strengthening its fraud detection capabilities, and to provide it with a more detailed picture of its customers.

As well as being part of Grameenphone's overarching 'telco tech' strategy, its work on AI is also very much in line with the ambitions set out in Vision 2041 – Bangladesh's grand plan to become a high-income nation in time for its 70th anniversary as an independent country.

It is a continuation of the government's previous plan, Digital Vision 2021, which was more about developing Bangladesh's ICT sector, with a particular focus on digital government, human resource development, promoting the IT industry, and connecting citizens.

Unsurprisingly, there remains a heavy emphasis in Vision 2041 on leveraging digital technology – including connectivity, automation and AI, and so-on – to drive the development of industry 4.0 in Bangladesh, and to provide citizens with the necessary digital skills so no one gets left behind.

In terms of concrete telecoms targets, Bangladesh aims to become one of the top 40 countries in the world when it comes to areas like internet access in schools, fixed and mobile broadband subscriptions, and Internet bandwidth.

According to the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report, in 2019 Bangladesh ranked 115th for Internet access in schools, 111th in terms of Internet bandwidth, and 88th and 106th for fixed and mobile broadband penetration respectively.

Assuming that other countries also want to develop their economies over the next couple of decades, there is plenty of work to do for the likes of Grameenphone to drag Bangladesh up the world rankings.