Banglalink's revenue up 8pc

Banglalink's gross revenue rose 8 percent year-on-year to Tk 4,710 crore in 2015, said VimpelCom, the operator's parent company, in its annual statement on Wednesday.

However, Amsterdam-based VimpelCom did not mention Banglalink's net profit.

VimpelCom has published its operating and financial results and that covers information on Banglalink's financial performance as well, said Mamun Ar Rashid, the operator's associate general manager of public relation and communication.

In a discussion on October 21 last year, Banglalink's then chief executive officer, Ziad Shatara, acknowledged that the telecom operator was on course to post its first profit.

The operator, which is the country's second largest after Grameenphone, saw good growth in active subscribers' number and data usage, the report said.

As of December 2015, Banglalink's customer base stood at 3.23 crore, up 5 percent year-on-year.

"However, the introduction of biometric identity verification of both new and existing customers continues to slow down customer growth in the market," VimpelCom said.

Of the 3.23 crore active subscribers, 1.4 crore were connected to the internet, which is an increase of 15 percent from the previous year.

Banglalink also continued to expand its 3G roll-out, which now effectively covers 33 percent of the country's population.

With the network expansion and rising smartphone penetration, data usage also rose 155 percent year-on-year to 134 MB per user at the end of December.

"Banglalink continues to demonstrate strong growth and an improving financial performance despite intensifying market competition," VimpelCom said.