Grameenphone wins Asian innovation award

Fruit wholeseller using CellBazaar to find available suppliers.

“This is yet another recognition of the culture of innovation that exists within Grameenphone,” observes Anders Jensen, CEO of Grameenphone. “As a market leader, Grameenphone has always been committed to provide its customers with simple, smart and useful products and services.”

First receiver of Innovation award

This is the first time Telecom Asia has introduced the “Innovation of the Year” award, and Grameenphone is proud to be the first receiver of this prestigious award. The Award-giving ceremony took place on April 8, 2008 in Phuket, Thailand.

Narrowing the digital divide

“Grameenphone’s achievements with CellBazaar show once more the remarkable potential of the mobile phone as a platform for innovation as well as its ability to narrow the digital divide,” said Joseph Waring, Telecom Asia Group Editor.

Using mobile phone to trade basic goods

The CellBazaar concept was developed at the MIT Media Lab by Kamal Quadir and he later founded a company and established a partnership with Grameenphone. Using Grameenphone CellBazaar, buyers and sellers are able to trade basic goods (e.g. rice, fish, motorcycle, used goods) from their mobile phones, bringing the benefits of information exchange, community networking and one-to-many trading to a previously unwired rural population.

3GSMA Award inBarcelona

Grameenphone CellBazaar won the 3GSMA Global Mobile Award 2008, in the category of “Best Use of Mobile for Social & Economic Development” earlier in February this year in Barcelona, Spain. Last year, the Grameenphone HealthLine Service, a 24-hour medical call center manned by licensed physicians, won the 3GSMA Global Mobile Award 2007, in the same category.

Telenor has a 62 per cent ownership interest in Grameenphone, the largest provider of mobile telecommunications services in Bangladesh.

Read related articles:

Grameenphone CellBazaar wins Global AwardÂ

Grameenphone wins Global Award for HealthLine

For more information, please contact:

Esben Tuman, Communications Director, Telenor Asia

E-mail: esben@telenor.com, mob.: +66 859 184 111