Grameenphone celebrates 7-crore landmark

Grameenphone has crossed seven crore active mobile connections in Bangladesh, a magic figure for any mobile operators even in the global perspective.

The market leader operator has celebrated the achievement this morning in an event at its head office where Michael Patrick Foley, chief executive officer of Grameenphone shared greetings with the executives, GP said on its official Facebook page

In April last year, GP crossed six-crore landmark, according to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission.

In his greeting speech, posted on GP's Facebook page, Foley said "22 years ago, when we first started working in Bangladesh our dreams were big but, perhaps never this big."

"In its last twenty years journey Grameenphone has become the part and parcel of our society (Bangladesh)," said Foley, a citizen of Canada.

He said seven crore customers mean, at least double of the Canada's total population and 13 times higher of the Norway.

Norwegian Telenor has a 55.8 per cent share of Grameenphone. Grameen Telecom Corporation owns 34.2 per cent of the stakes and the remaining 10 per cent of the shares belong to retail and institutional investors.

Grameenphone awarded license in 1996 and started its commercial operation in March 1997.

In September 2014 it had crossed five crore milestone and hit the four crore landmark in September 2012. And all the milestones they have achieved as the first player of the country.

As of June, the Robi have 4.47 crore active connections while another competitor Banglalink have 3.33 crore connections, according to BTRC.