Bangladesh’s largest mobile operator Grameenphone plans to upgrade all of its nearly 10,000 base stations to 3G by June, adding 1,700 new sites in Q1.

CEO Rajeev Sethi said 60 per cent its existing base stations support 3G, after adding 3,400 3G sites last year, the Dhaka Tribune reported. The operator, which has a 42 per cent market share, launched 3G service in late 2013.

Sethi said that by Q2 nearly 90 per cent of its subscriber base of 58 million will have access to 3G services. Just over 15 per cent of its customers are 3G subscribers, according to GSMA Intelligence: its target is 26 per cent by the end of the year.

Telenor group CEO Sigve Brekke, who was visiting Bangladesh, noted that Grameenphone is on a transformation journey from a voice communications company to a digital service provider, the newspaper said.

“As part of this transformation, we have not only seen significant network investments but also the introduction of new digital content and rich e-services to education, agriculture and health,” Brekke said.

The operator set the goal of signing up 50 million data customers by 2019 and aims to have 16 million data users at the end of 2016.