Egyptian telecom company Orascom has taken over Bangladesh's Sheba Telecom and plans to invest 250 million dollars to boost coverage and create nearly four million new subscribers, officials said Thursday.
"Orascom has purchased a 100 percent stake in Sheba telecom company at a cost of 50 million dollars and intends to invest 250 million dollars to widen its coverage," said Sheba Telecom spokesman Mahbub Alam Bhuiyan.
The company will become one of four mobile phone operators in Bangladesh.
"They will start investing the 250 million dollars as soon as the government creates a fair playing field for all cellular phone operators in Bangladesh," Bhuiyan added.
Orascom wants access to the 1800 MHz frequency which would allow it to provide greater coverage across the country. The frequency is already being used by two competitors.
The company, which will rebrand Sheba Telecom as "Banglalink", has inherited Shebas 60,000 clients. It aims to boost that number to four million within two years.
The company already has operations in Algeria, Pakistan, Tunisia and Iraq.
Bhuiyan added that Orascom saw Bangladesh, a country of 140 million people, as an attractive market due to its large and concentrated population.
Mobile phone use was relatively low but subscriber numbers were increasing rapidly rate, Bhuiyan said.
Bangladesh has only 950,000 land phone lines and some 2.5 million mobile phone subscribers. Mobile phones first became available in Bangladesh in 1998.