“Our simplified customer centric products and continued investment on 3G coverage expansion are driving this growth. This solid revenue growth and efficient spending resulted in improved EBITDA margin,” said Dilip Pal, CFO of Grameenphone in a statement released from Grameenphone.

“Earnings per share was stable despite higher depreciation and amortisation,” Pal added.

Much of this feat for GP has been enabled by growing demands for data services. During the first half, it acquired 0.2 million new subscriptions, pushing up the subscription base to 56.9 million, as per the telecoms regulators BTRC.

This constitutes a 7.1 percent subscription growth (Year on Year) with SIM market share of 43.3 percent, until May 2016.

Net profit after taxes for the first half was Tk 10.7 billion with 19.2 percent margin compared with Tk 10.5 billion with 20.4 percent margin of the corresponding period of 2015.

Higher revenue and efficiency in operating expenditure led to a healthy EBITDA (before other items) of Tk 30.6 billion with corresponding margin of 54.8 percent, the GP statement said.

Earnings per share (EPS) for the period stood at Tk 7.92.

GP pumped in a total investment of Tk 13.6 billion during the period to bolster their 3G coverage and to enhance other service parameters.

It contributed Tk 33.1 billion or 59.5 percent of the total revenue for the exchequer in the form of various taxes and duties.