MOBILE PHONE COVERS HALF OF ALL FAMILIES IN BANGLADESH: SURVEY
DHAKA, May 28 (Xinhua) The mobile phone has become a major communication device in Bangladesh which covers half of all families in the country, said a Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics ( BBS) survey.
In 2005, only 10 percent households were covered by mobile phones, says the survey.
According to the last census by BBS held in 2001, the total number of households in the country was 25.4 million.
The mobile phone technology was introduced in Bangladesh in 1993. The device gradually became popular among users when the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) was launched in 1997.
However, the high price of the technology kept it away from the general public until 2005.
Since then more mobile operators came into the market and stiff competition among them helped reduce the price.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) data shows that the number of customers under the mobile networks reached 52.43 million at the end of 2009. As of April 2010, the number of mobile users was 56.43 million out of a population of around 150 million in the country.