"Telecoms network can contribute tremendously to a country's economy. Bangladesh's GDP can be much better growing between 8 and 8.5 percent if energy and telecoms perform better," Dominique Simon, French trade commissioner in Dhaka, observed at a luncheon meeting.

France-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce & Industry (CCIFB) organised the meeting at a city restaurant where Christian Rene Looten, country senior officer of Alcatel, spoke on "Telecommunications in Bangladesh: Alcatel -- a telecom global leader."

Simon also said purchasing capacity of the people here is increasing.

In his presentation, Looten noted telecoms sector alone should contribute at least one percent to the GDP that grows over 6 percent.

Telecoms is an indicator of the development, he said noting that around 20 million people here are able to pay for mobile phones and there is a room to make the number of telephone subscribers double.

The Alcatel official, however, observed six operators in Bangladesh market is too much, fearing that the number of operators might come down to three to four within the next 10 years.

About Alcatel's involvement in Bangladesh, he said his company is basically involved in building infrastructure in the telecoms sector.

Alcatel is one of the leading telecoms vendors in the world with its annual turnover of around US$ 50 billion.

Around 97 percent of its revenue comes from infrastructure works, Looten said adding that Alcatel was involved in building 50 percent of BTTB infrastructure for the fixed phone service.

He said Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has a big role to play in making the market working for all in the coming days.

Allowing so many operators in the fixed phone service in four zones may also create complication and lead to litigation in future, he noted adding some litigations may come in the coming years.