Opera Software has announced that GrameenPhone, the largest mobile phone operator in Bangladesh, has chosen Opera Mini to bring the full Internet to its mobile phone subscribers. GrameenPhone has a 62% market share in Bangladesh and will be offering a customized and localized version of Opera Mini as a free download to its 5.5 million subscribers. The company is also responsible for promoting and distributing the browser through their own channels in order to maximize its market penetration in Bangladesh.

“We are very happy to see this great interest for Opera Mini, and teaming up with operators and content providers around the world is of key importance when it comes to spreading the word on this powerful little browser,” says Timo Bruns, executive vice president, mobile, Opera Software. “More and more operators are discovering the benefits of offering Opera Mini with customized start pages to their customers in order to grow Web browsing and stimulate the use of premium services in the mass market.”

Opera Mini is picking up momentum after its global launch in January, 2006. Over 1.7 million people have downloaded the browser, and Opera last week announced that T-Mobile is pre-installing Opera Mini on three high-volume feature phones as part of their Web\'n\'Walk offering. And this week the leading German telecommunications service provider, debitel, announced a two-year contract with Opera to include the full range of Opera\'s mobile browser solutions on across their device portfolio.