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Logo of Grameen Phone; Bangladesh largest mobile operator.

Currently, 3GWeek had two posts about Bangladesh. First is about “Vodafone to invest in Bangladesh” and second is about “Sony Ericsson opened exclusive store in Bangladesh “. Now, Reuters bring us one yet other good news, at least for Bangladeshi.

It said that there are about 1.38 million new mobile subscribers in March. This means that Bangladesh has 38.93 million. Of course, compared to China or India this is just a little of cake, but with 140 million people, the future is so bright.

Even a survey said that at the end of 2009, the mobile phone users will evolve into 50 million. Nowadays, there are six mobile operators serving all Bangladeshi. Here they are:

1. Grameenphone with 17.81 million users

2. Orascom Telecom’s ORTE.CA Banglalink with 8.31 million users

3. Aktel with 7.45 million users

4. Warid Telecom International of the United Arab Emirates with 2.79 million users

5. CityCell with 1.56 million users

6. Teletalk with 1.01 million users

Ruma Paul, the reporter closed this report with an optimistic statement:

Mobile phone services are an important contributor to the cash-strapped nation’s economy. The sector contributed 1.5 percent to Bangladesh’s gross domestic product and created more than 250,000 jobs, officials said.

While Wim Permana, since he loved the tag line of Grameen Foundation (Fighting poverty with micro finance), will close this post with:

Grameen Phone - Connecting the poor with inexpensive mobile phone.

Yeah, of course. I’m just kidding here since Grameen Phone also offering the quietly expensive BlackBerry service for their customers. Does The Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus also wear a BlackBerry on his daily life too? Shouldn’t he?

Source: Reuters

Image courtesy of Grameen Phone