Bangladesh's top mobile phone carrier, Grameenphone, said on Thursday it plans to raise up

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to $300 million in a share placement and domestic initial public offering.

Grameenphone, majority owned-by Norway's Telenor, said it aimed to raise up to $150 million with a pre-IPO share placement and up to another $150 million with the offering itself.

The telecom firm said it plans to file with regulators in Bangladesh by the end of the month, with an aim to list on exchanges in Dhaka and Chittagong.

Grameenphone said last month that its subscriber base had passed 20 million after rising more than 21 percent since January. The company invested more than $500 million in 2007 expanding its business.

Bangladesh's mobile phone sector has been growing rapidly, with the number of subscribers reaching more than 42 million at the end of May from just 200,000 in 2001, helped by competitive tariffs and cheap handsets.

The number is expected to pass 70 million by 2011 as competition in the sector heats up, analysts have said.

Grameenphone's competitors include Egyptian Orascom Telecom's Banglalink, AKtel, majority owned by Telekom Malaysia International, CityCell, a joint venture between Pacific Bangladesh Telecom and Singapore Telecommunications, and Gulf-based Warid Telecom and state-run Teletalk.

Although nearly half of Bangladesh's population of more than 140 million people are still below the poverty line, the country has been one of world's fastest growing cellular markets.