"We are going to grow one million per month and the total subscriber base is expected to reach around 20 million by the end of 2006. The figure is close to the neighbouring countries in the region," said Muhammad Omar Farooq, speaking at a launching ceremony Jubok Phone as a special guest.

Around 30 million mobile sets are sold every month across the world and one million of these figures is sold in Bangladesh alone, the BTRC chairman said noting telecom is the engine of growth not only in India and Pakistan but also in Bangladesh.

Post and Telecommunications Minister Aminul Haque spoke as the chief guest at the launching ceremony at China-Bangladesh Friendship Conference Centre in Dhaka.

The minister mentioned tele-density of a country is considered as an indicator of the economic condition. Like most other developing countries, he explained, Bangladesh was lagging far behind the developed world in terms of penetration in telecoms.

Just in the beginning of the new millennium, tele-density in Bangladesh was around two percent, one of the lowest in the world, he said.

Five mobile phone companies have more than 12 million mobile phone clients. As a result of it, per capita tele-density of Bangladesh is now around 10 percent, he said.

Chairman of Tele Barta Ltd, the owning company of Jubok Phone, Hosain Al Masum said the company has a target to reach around three lakh land phone subscribers in four zones of the country by the end of 2006.

Bradley Holmes of GPC Asia Pacific, J Anderson, Motorola vice-president in Asia Pacific and other top executives of Tele Barta Ltd also spoke at the launching ceremony.