Bangladesh Operator Passes Subscriber Landmark

Bangladeshi mobile network Aktel, a Telekom Malaysia/DoCoMo joint venture has passed the 10 million subscriber mark, reports local news media. Aktel's chief executive officer Jefri Ahmed Tambi told the bdnews24 website, "When AKTEL started its operations, it had just 150 employee and 20 Base Tower Staions. Now we have 1,500 employees and 5,000 Base Stations,"

"It is a great achievement in a short time. Now, AKTEL must go ahead and lower its call rate for subscribers," Hasanul Haq Inu, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on telecommunications, said at a gala night to celebrate the achievement at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre on Wednesday.

There are ongoing rumours that Banglalink, owned by Egypt's Orascom Telecom, and Aktel are in talks to merge their networks. Between them, they would control just over 42% of the market.

The country currently has six operators - and according to figures from the Mobile World, ended Q1 of this year with just under 45.8 million mobile subscribers - which is still a population penetration level of around 30%. Also worth noting is that while the country has six operators, only four of them are of any significant scale, Grameenphone (21m), Banglalink (10.8m) and Aktel (8.8m) and finally, Warid Telecom (2.3m). The two remaining long term incumbents, Citycell and Teletalk add up to 3.6 million customers between them.

The GSMA has called for the repeal of a Tk. 800 (US$11.6) tax on each new SIM card sold, saying that it is holding back the growth in the market.

On the web - Mobile World - bdnews24 - Aktel

Posted to the site on 13th August 2009