Bangladesh Adds 2.05 Million Mobile Phone Users in Jan

Bangladesh's six cell phone carriers added 2.05 million new subscribers in January, taking the total number of user to 36.4 million in the one of the world's fastest growing mobile market, official data showed.

The number of mobile phone users in the impoverished country of over 140 million people rose nearly 58 percent in 2007 to 34.4 million as rivals cut prices to compete, said the Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission.

Several market surveys forecast the number of mobile phone users will be around 50 million at the end of 2009.

Top mobile phone company Grameenphone, majority owned by Norway's Telenor (TEL.OL), has raised its subscriber base to 16.9 million from 16.7 million at the end of 2007.

Egyptian Orascom Telecom's (ORTE.CA) Banglalink saw its customer base grow by 370,000 to 7.5 million.

Aktel, majority owned by Telekom Malaysia International (TLMM.KL), ended January with 7.3 million from 6.4 million.

Warid Telecom International (LLC) of the United Arab Emirates, which launched Bangladesh operations in May 2007, added 220,000 users in Jaunary, taking its user base to 2.4 million.

The only CDMA carrier CityCell, a joint venture between Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Limited and Singapore Telecommunication (STEL.SI), grew to 1.5 million users from 1.41 million in 2007.

State-owned Teletalk's user base climbed to 1 million in January, up from 850,000 at the end of 2007.