[Audio Gap] for joining us today. My name is Naureen. I'm the Head of Investor Relations for Grameenphone, and I would like to welcome you to our earnings disclosure for the first quarter of 2021. Our presentation, financial statements and additional documents are available on our investor relations [ website ]. You can start posting your questions in the comment box. We will address [ them at the ] end of our presentation. In case you are unable to post your question, please send me an e-mail or text. I would now like to welcome our CEO, Mr. Yasir Azman, to start our presentation.

Thank you, Naureen. And good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us this morning. I would like to wish you all a happy Bengali new year and Ramadan Kareem. Talking about highlights for the quarter 1. We have actually a stronger start of the first quarter, in comparison to the first quarter of last year. First quarter of last year was very challenging for Grameenphone, as we could not import our equipments. And we had scarcity of numbers, resulting in negative net adds. And we were unable to roll out towers as the TowerCo regime was not functional. We had a stronger start in first quarter of 2021, with well-managed challenges, and this quarter also marked several milestones for both Bangladesh and Grameenphone. As the country marked its 50th year of independence, GP marks its 24-year journey in the country as a partner and enabler to growth and digitalization of the national. In this early March, the telecom regulator had a spectrum auction, where Grameenphone participated and secured 10.4 megahertz spectrum. The auction had a very good outcome, and it contributes positively towards the ultimate good of the country and the people. Having acquired a positive net add of 1.7 million subscribers in the first quarter, GP also marked 80 million subscribers milestone in February this year. On the 50th independence day of the country, we also enabled 100% of our -- Grameenphone's towers with power of 4G. With a growth of 50.7% year-over-year, we [indiscernible] with 21.5 million 4G users. We are committed to delivering value for our customers. With the 10.4 newly acquired megahertz spectrum acquisition, Grameenphone now has the largest spectrum holding of 47.4 megahertz in the country. During the quarter, we converted -- almost -- converted 1,510 new sites to 4G, resulting in a total of…

Thank you, Azman. And good morning to everyone. Let me start, as always, with a brief overview before going into the details. In Q1 '21, Grameenphone continued its solid operational performance in terms of strong subscriber acquisition and investment momentum, along with a strong EBITDA margin. The overall economy, as we just heard from Azman, is still impacted by COVID-19, where average daily new cases has reached a level of around 5,000 by the end of March, while educational institutions remain closed. Despite the volatility of this situation, Grameenphone remained active in the market with a strong gross add drive along with the continued expansion of our 4G network. In summary, Grameenphone had a minus 2.2% year-on-year growth in daily subscription and traffic revenue in Q1, after minus 2.8% in Q4 2020. However, quarter-on-quarter, daily subscriber and traffic revenue grew by plus 2%. Through our efficient OpEx management, we are able to maintain a strong EBITDA margin of 62.7%. With the continued investment momentum, GP's CapEx-to-sales, excluding license and lease, ratio for the quarter stood at 9.6% compared to 7.2% in the previous quarter. Earnings per share stood at BDT 6.6, reflecting a 16.7% year-on-year degrowth in Q1 mainly contributed by higher finance costs and favorable one-off adjustments in Q1 last year. [ Next, yes ]. In terms of subscriber development, Grameenphone continued its acquisition drive in the market, resulting into 1.7 million net adds in Q1 '21 while surpassing the milestone of 80 million subscribers. Our subscriber base at the end of the quarter stood at 80.7 million with a 2.2% growth from previous quarter and a 7.2% growth year-on-year. With this, according to BTRC published information as of February '21, GP subscription market share stood at 46.4%. The 4G population coverage reached 95.8%, which is a 4.7 percentage…

Thank you, Jens. And to recap, I must say we have very strong momentum in the beginning of 2021 as a combination of well-managed operational challenges with all our capabilities in place and playing to our strengths in the market execution. The volatilities related to COVID-19 are currently on an increasing trend. And with our strong business continuity plan and collaborative approach efforts with our stakeholders, we are dedicated to supporting our communities in the recovery of the pandemic while we maintain health and safety of our employees and our [ diligent ] partners; at the same time, drive similar awareness for our customers. Going forward, we'll continue to build on our leadership in technology and digital know-how, supported by innovation; at the same time, increasing numbers of subscribers, 4G users and data users, all of which will be key to delivering on our future growth. I would like -- thank you all. Stay safe and healthy. I hand back to Naureen for Q&A session.

Thank you, Azmanbhai. We have already started receiving some questions. Let us start with the first one. Jens, the first one, if you will...

Should I start...

Yes, please, why [ NSEF ] is high in this quarter.

[ Yes, okay ], why [ NSEF ] is high in this quarter. As you might recall, in Q1 last year, we had a deposit of BDT 10 billion to BTRC that was made pursuant to the order of the Honorable Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh referring to the dispute on the BTRC audit. So it's a [ last year's effect ].

Okay, we have [ a landing ] set of questions from IDLC. Let's start one by one. How do you assess 3.5% year-over-year decline in data revenue in quarter 1?

Yes. GP's investment and data sub acquisition was adversely impacted from mid-2019 to mid-2020, which had a continued negative impact. So data revenue, including allocation from bundles and number of day, adjusted remained flat.

What is your outlook about data price competition in the industry? And where do you see the inflection point? Unfortunately, according to the rules of Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission, we cannot give out any forward-looking statements or any outlook, so we have to refrain from answering this.

Yes, but let me answer it at least backwards, honestly. If you see the data development, I think you see, you recognize that the average data price came down significantly year-on-year on this, which is reflected. So also means it's an extremely competitive market on the data side.

Okay, at this point of time, we do not have any further questions. We will wait a few more minutes to see if something else comes up. Jens, I have one more question for you. Can you elaborate on the local call termination rate? How does it affect the total revenue?

Yes. As you can see from our financials, comparable to the subs and traffic revenue development versus total revenue, that's a negative impact from that, from the SMP regulations last year, of around 0.3 billion per quarter.

Azmanbhai, I have a question for you. What percentage of your customer base have 4G handset access? This was covered in your presentation.

I think Azman is muted. Let me then answer the -- I think there is a question on, what was it, elasticity, right, price elasticity.

Yes. Can you elaborate? How...

Yes. How is the price elasticity on the data front was the question that I saw here. As I mentioned before, you saw an uptick of the average usage by roughly 32%, ending up with 3 gigabyte, around [ similar, 2.94, 2.95 ], I believe, on this, which was accompanied by around 30% average price reduction.

And Naureen, on the 4G question. We have at this point of time 21.5 million 4G users in our network. And 4G sub base consists of 29% of total GP's sub base in Q1 2021.

Azmanbhai, may I request you to answer one more question? Can you elaborate on the strategy?

Yes. We remain actually focused on being an leading technology service provider to help the nation to unleash its potential, especially the youth of Bangladesh. While having that promise, we have a couple of areas or the value drivers strategically prioritized to continue creating value for our shareholders and as well as in our customer's life; and these are 4 things we are focusing on. It's data experience, data network experience; growth; modernization of our organization and the way we work, our commercial technology and overall in the staff functions. And the final one is how do you constructively work with regulators and in the business environment for the future of Bangladesh while we are bringing in new technologies and looking forward to 5G in some point of time in the -- down the line. These 4 areas remain as our strategic priorities to drive growth and efficiency...

[ Just a ] related question, Azmanbhai: How do you overcome COVID-19? And again, we can't give out future outlook but a little bit of flavor on that.

At this point of time, we are having a strong business continuity plan so that we keep our customer connected and bring in new product and services solutions so that, being at home, our customers can run their businesses. And as an individual, if you are a student, you can continue your education. And to overcome from this COVID, we need to take the maximum learning out of this situation. And there have been many new way of work coming out, and eventually we need to bring those into our practice. We are building an resilient data network. As we have mentioned, that we have acquired new spectrum, 10.4 megahertz. At the same time, in March, we have rolled out 4G all over Bangladesh. All our towers are now converted to 4G. At the same time, the tower is in -- has -- towers rollout has started rolling out. Our data network will be much stronger. And that is how we will help the country and the company to overcome from this COVID situation because we do believe that the future will be riding on digital connectivity and digital solutions.

One more for you, Azmanbhai. Any thought process on the migration of current customer base from 3G to 4G?

This is also to some extent related to what we have just mentioned, that now the customers can access 4G to -- anywhere of the -- from anywhere in the country. So it is 100% BTS, as the towers are now converted to 4G. And then the next thing is bringing in 4G device in our [ customer's family ]. It is a responsibility for the device manufacturers, importers, government and regulators together. And we as a body into the ecosystem, we are working with all of them so that coming devices are coming at affordable prices and all 4G because the country is ready to provide 4G services all over the country. So there is no point of bringing in new 3G device. And that is how we are working on with ecosystem players. And to add on: We do actually play a critical role from the forefront of bringing in affordable 4G devices. Even right before the launching of 4G in Bangladesh, 2018, we have brought in 4G devices so that we preponed the conversion. And we have continued that journey to innovation at affordable price. Naureen?

Thank you, Azmanbhai. Jens, I have a question for you. Mobility seems to be recovering, as witnessed by the subscriber growth. Why is usage down for voice then?

You see that, at least for Q1, the economy and mobility are in a recovery trend. This is what we said, if we see the growth on a quarter-on-quarter basis, which is 2%. So it's recovering, but it's not fully recovered. And please reflect that also the educational institutions are still closed.

Up until now, we do not see any further questions. We'll wait a few more minutes.

Yes. Should I -- there's a question on revenue cannibalization. Is that correct? [ Can you read it out for me ]?

Yes, revenue -- yes. How do you see the risk of [ gross ] revenue cannibalization from migration to data?

Because obviously there is a risk. I think this is what has been seen in all of the markets, right? And we see also the OTT getting stronger, but nevertheless, also you see from our -- results you have on voice is still extremely strong. It's the [ overwhelming ] part of our revenue.

Okay, there has not been any new questions in the past -- well, a few minutes now, so I think we can close this here. Thank you, everyone. In case you do have any questions, please get in touch with me. We'll try to get in touch -- we'll try get through them within today. Additionally, if you have any requests for meetings with management, please also get in touch with me. We will be available. Thank you. Stay safe.

Thank you. Bye.

Thank you.