Aktel turns into Robi, takes a new logo

Aktel, one of the country’s top mobile phone brands, took its new name—Robi—meaning the sun, with effect from the dawn of Sunday when it also unveiled a new logo for the company at a colourful ceremony at the capital’s Suhrawardi Uddyan.
Aktel will henceforth be known as Robi, underlining the rich, vibrant culture and heritage of Bangladesh, executives of the popular cellphone company said.
‘Robi brings the first gleam of light that shows us the day… a symbol of harvest that brings smile on the faces of farmers,’ said Michael Kuehner, the Managing Director and CEO of Axiata (Bangladesh) Ltd., the Malaysia-based mobile operator.
He went on to point out that the word Robi is also very familiar to Bangla speaking people as it is the name of their pride poet, Rabindranath Tagore. ‘We aim to develop an emotional link with the culture and roots of this nation… Therefore, we chose the Bangla word Robi to be our identity,’ he said.
The mobile phone operator has also taken the logo of the Axiata Group Berhad, the parent company.
Axiata (Bangladesh) Limited, formerly known as TM International (BD) Limited, is a joint venture between Axiata Group Berhad (70 per cent) and Japanese NTT DoCoMo (30 percent).
One of the six mobile companies in Bangladesh, Robi is the third largest mobile phone operator in terms of revenue, having some 10.31 million subscribers across the country.
Earlier, the largest mobile phone operator in the country, Grameen Phone Ltd., had also changed its logo assuming that of Telenor Group, the major shareholders of the GP.
‘By changing the name to a Bengali word, the company aims at aligning its services to local culture and tradition. The word has been chosen as it carries a range of dominant meanings of emotional and cultural bondage of the people of this land,’ Kuehner told a press briefing at Suhrawardi Uddyan.
Robi’s head of corporate affairs Segufta Yesmin Samad and chief commercial officer Bidyut Kumar Basu, among others, were present at the function.
Aktel, which has now become Robi, launched its operations in Bangladesh on the November 15, 1997.