Grameenphone, the Bangladesh subsidiary of Norwegian telecom company Telenor, announced Tuesday it has set a target to connect 50 million internet users within the next five years.

Last month, Grameenphone became the first carrier to surpass the 50 million subscriber mark in Bangladesh.

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"Today, we celebrate our customers with this milestone," said Grameenphone CEO Vivek Sood.

Grameenphone said internet speeds of its existing data plans for subscribers of its 3G network will be doubled at no added cost as part of the celebratory offer, he said.

Sood said the company has invested US$154 million annually over the past few years to maintain service quality and update the network.

The yearly investments, he said, will increase substantially. No specific figure was given to reach the coveted goal of bringing the Internet to 50 million users.

Oslo-listed Telenor, which has 150 million customers around the world, owns 56 percent of the Dhaka-listed Grameenphone, its most profitable unit.

Earlier in March, Grameenphone became the first company in the industry that brought all of the country's 64 districts under its 3G network.

Consisting of 8,600 base stations, the Grameenphone network covers 99 percent of the population.

Meanwhile, Medhat El Husseiny was appointed chief technology officer of Grameenphone.

An Egyptian national with more than 20 years of industry experience, Husseiny served in Orascom Telecom Algeria as its CTO. He was also a member of the leadership team at the Vimpelcom Group.

Husseimy has experience in corporate strategy, operations management, network and development operations and contract and negotiations management.

TagsGrampeenphone, Telenor, Telecommunications company, Bangladesh, Norway, Oslo, Dhaka