Regulators in Bangladesh have approved Indian phone company Bharti Airtel's proposed $300m investment in the country's fourth largest mobile firm.If the plan is finalised, Bharti will be the first Indian telecom operator to enter Bangladesh's highly competitive mobile market.
Bangladesh is one of the fastest growing mobile markets in the world.
It already has more than 50 million subscribers and the number is expected to double by 2015.
Price war
Bharti Airtel is India's leading mobile phone service provider and is now planning to buy a nearly 70% stake in Abu Dhabi-owned Warid Telecom, which has nearly three million customers in Bangladesh.
Bharti Airtel, which has twice failed to seal a merger with South Africa's MTN Group, wants to diversify because of intensifying competition and a price war in India.
Bangladeshi officials hope that the Indian company will invest more than $1bn in the next few years.
But Bharti Airtel will face stiff competition from market leaders such as the Bangladesh-Norway joint venture Grameenphone, which has more than 40% of the market share.
Mobile phones have become popular in Bangladesh mainly because the networks cover virtually the entire country and call rates are among the cheapest in the world.
Mobile phone companies like Bharti Airtel hope that the introduction of additional services like banking and money transfers will attract new customers and boost revenue.
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