[citation needed] Warid Telecom, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Group, offered mobile telephony service with a subscriber base of over 2.9 million in Bangladesh.

[4] In December 2005, Warid Telecom International LLC, an Abu Dhabi based consortium paid US$50 million to obtain a GSM license from the BTRC and became the sixth mobile phone operator in Bangladesh.

In October 2006, Warid Telecom put off the launch of its cellphone services in Bangladesh until April 2007 after its major supplier Nokia walked out on an agreement over a payment dispute.

It gave away complimentary subscriptions among a selected group of individuals to make test calls and the operator adjusted its network's quality based on their comments.

[9] Ericsson was selected as the vendor for its network base stations, microwave links, IT support and transmission towers.