Agency: One debate is on if BT can sustain a 50% cut
It has been learnt that the Bhutan Telecom (BT) Board had proposed to the Druk Holding and Investments (DHI) Board that the 50% data hike ordered by the government be done over two years with a 25% cut in the first year and then another 25% cut in the second year.
This would allow BT to deal with any change in network load and potential congestion by deploying additional infrastructure. It would also be less drastic and allow for revenue to grow too as usage went up or more people came on.
The DHI Board not only looked at the above, congestion and sustainability of BT, but also asked BT what are its plans to counter offers by Starlink and TashiCell in the market.
Starlink is offering 25 to 100 Mbps download speed and 5 to 10 Mbps upload speed with unlimited data for Nu 3,000 a month in its Residential Lite plan among others.
TashiCell said its current Internet Leased Line (ILL) Plans (4G/5G Home Internet) range from Nu. 1,477 for 15 Mbps (300GB) to Nu. 4,777 for 200 Mbps (1TB).
The Enterprise ILL over Fiber starts at 5 Mbps for Nu. 1,950 with unlimited data and guaranteed speeds with 1:1 contention.
The DHI Board wanted to know from BT what is its strategy or counter to the above plans as BT currently only offers lease lines at Nu 550 per Mbps with the minimum requirement to take 2 Mbps or Nu 1,100.
A BT official said that to match the TashiCell and Starlink leased line offers it will have to build more 5G towers and for that an analysis of the cost has to be done.
The DHI Board on 26th June asked BT to do a detailed study on all of the above issues.
This is why BT could not follow the letter sent by GovTech Agency asking it to slash data rates by 50% from 1st July 2025.
In the meantime, BT has put a letter to the government via the GovTech Agency asking for some more time to do its study.
As BT does its analysis, the question now is the financial impact of any 50% data hike on BT, and if BT can take that load.
In 2024 BT made a total of Nu 6.140 billion (bn) in revenue and a profit before tax of Nu 3.345 bn and Nu 2.370 bn in profit after tax.
BT has total assets of Nu 7.273 bn which means that profit for 2024 is generating a 32.58% return on the asset. BT has a total equity of Nu 5.940 bn which makes the return on equity at around 40%.
