Grameenphone, the largest mobile operator in Bangladesh, recorded strong profit and revenue growth in the first quarter of the year, as it expanded its user base and made double-digit gains in data and voice takings.

Net profit jumped 33.8 per cent year-on-year to BDT9.28 billion ($109 million), with total revenue increasing 11.6 per cent to BDT34.9 billion.

In a statement, the operator said it paid BDT20.3 billion, or 58 per cent of total revenue, to the national exchequer in the form of taxes, fees, licences and spectrum assignments.

CEO Michael Foley hailed a strong performance in the face of “many challenges in the regulatory enviornment”.

“Our strength remains in market execution, where we pushed some new value propositions that gained good traction, as well as saw an uptake in 4G conversion.”

Data revenue rose 18.9 per cent, while voice increased 15.1 per cent through a combination of higher usage and growth in subscribers, Grameenphone said.

Its subscriber base increased 9.8 per cent year-on-year to end March with 74.1 million subs, of which 38.2 million were data users. LTE subs represented 9 per cent of all its total at the end of the quarter.

Capex was up 8.4 per cent over Q1 2018 to BDT4.2 billion. It added 926 4G sites to take its total to 5,900. The sum of all sites stood at nearly 16,000.