www.WirelessFederation.com/news: With an annual rise of 17 percent, 7.79 million subscribers were added by six mobile phone companies in Bangladesh. However, this has been the lowest growth rate since 2005. The lower growth rate has been attributed to the operators’ reluctance to offer attractive packages to woo new customers because of a higher SIM.

It has been expected that by offering lucrative packages and by putting pressure on profit margins and revenues, an increase from 52.4 million users at the end of 2009 to 70 million by 2011 can be achieved.

The subscriber base of Grameenphone, majority owned by Norway’s Telenor is raised by 11 percent, or 2.27 million, to 23.26 million. Egyptian Orascom Telecom’s Banglalink added 3.54 million and third-ranked Aktel added 1.09 million. Warid Telecom, Bangladesh’s fourth-biggest telecom also attracted 66,000 customers to reach 2.99 million in 2009.