Menu

Grameenphone crosses 15 million subscriber mark

Press release
Fornebu
2 minute read
Press Release
Grameenphone Ltd., the largest cellular operator in Bangladesh, where Telenor has a 62 per cent owner share, has crossed the 15 million mobile phone subscriber mark. This equals an increase of 50 percent from the 10 million customers the company noted in November last year.

When Telenor first entered Bangladesh, it was with the aim of providing mobile communication for all and to roll out the network in rural and urban Bangladesh simultaneously. Since launch in March 1997, Grameenphone has built the largest cellular network in the country with base stations in more than 5000 locations. Presently, nearly 98 percent of the country's population is within the coverage area of the Grameenphone network.

The entire Grameenphone network is also EDGE/GPRS enabled, allowing access to high-speed Internet and data services from anywhere within the coverage area. There are currently nearly 3 million EDGE/GPRS users in the Grameenphone network compared with approximately 600,000 fixed-line Internet users in the country.

In addition, Grameenphone has established more than five hundred Community Information Centres providing shared high-speed Internet access and other information-based services in the rural areas through GrameenPhone's EDGE network.

Grameenphone has so far invested more than USD 1.4 billion up to June 2007, enabling the company to increase network capacity in order to accommodate the growth of mobile communication in Bangladesh.

Telenor is the majority (62%) shareholder of Grameenphone while Grameen Telecom Corporation (38%) of Bangladesh is the other shareholder


For further information, please contact:

Esben Tuman, Communications Director, Telenor Asia
Mobile: +66 859 184 111, e-mail: esben@telenor.com