Robi Axiata PLC is a public PLC company, where Axiata Group Berhad of Malaysia holds the controlling stake of 61.82%, Bharti Airtel of India holds 28.18%, and general public holds the remaining 10% stake. The company made its debut in the country’s twin stock markets in Dhaka and Chattogram on the 24th of December 2020 with the largest ever IPO.
The company commenced operation in 1997 as Telekom Malaysia International (Bangladesh) with the brand name ‘Aktel’. In 2010, it was rebranded as ‘Robi’ and the company changed its name to Robi Axiata PLC.
Robi is the second largest mobile network operator in Bangladesh with 56.4Mn subscribers, representing 30% of subscriber market share, out of which close to 32.4Mn were 4G subscribers or 57% of total subscribers were 4G users and 75% of data users were 4G users as of end of second quarter of 2023 (Q2’23).
Robi ensured 98.5% population coverage of its 4G network with more than 16,000 4G sites. The company also boasts having the highest percentage of data users (76.5%) in the industry.
Following the merger with Airtel Bangladesh, the merged company, Robi Axiata PLC (Robi) started its commercial operation on 16 November 2016. As of now, this is the biggest ever merger of the country and first ever merger in the mobile telecom sector of Bangladesh.
The company has introduced many first of its kind digital services in the country and has been the pioneer for paving the way in taking mobile financial services to the underserved communities in the rural and semi-urban areas. It is the only mobile operator in Bangladesh to have successfully conducted the trial run of 5G and the first operator to have launched Voice over LTE technology on its 4.5G network.