April 11, 2005
GrameenPhone in Bangladesh reaches three million mobile phone subscribers
Telenor's mobile arm in Bangladesh, GrameenPhone, celebrates another important milestone, reaching no less than three million subscribers, reports hugin. GrameenPhone started operations in Bangladesh in 1997.
t took GrameenPhone six years to reach the one million subscriber mark in August 2003, about one more year to reach the second million mark in September 2004 and just about six months to attain the present three million subscriber mark.
Being the largest telecommunications service provider in the country, GrameenPhone is playing a crucial role in increasing the country's mobile telephone penetration rate, which is still one of the lowest in the world with less than four telephones per 100 people.
The internationally acclaimed Village Phone Program of GrameenPhone is another unique initiative, which provides telephone services in remote rural areas where no such facilities existed before. This initiative also provides the Village Phone operators, mostly poor village women, a good income-earning opportunity. There are now more than 110,000 Village Phones in operation in some 44,000 villages around the country."
Related articles:
-- Bank gives beggars phones instead of cash - Grameen Bank, famous for pioneering micro-credit programs in Bangladesh, has launched a new idea to empower the poor: arming beggars with mobile phones so they can sell a roving service for cash.
-- GSM payphones bring communications to rural Rwanda communities - MTN Rwanda says that in the past year, it has provided over 1,600 GSM based payphones for rural communities, bringing communications to areas that are often not served by landline phone networks.
-- Mobile phones for Uganda's poor - Based on the successful Grameen Village Phone Programme - The "phone ladies" of Bangladesh -, MTN Uganda officially launched “MTN villagePhone” this week.
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