Economic recession has affected the cell phone industry of Bangladesh, with cell phone companies reporting a fall in growth in August. The country is one of the fastest growing markets for cell phones in the world, a report said.

The number of new subscribers in August was 600,000, when compared to 1.1 million July, a drop of 500,000 according to the Gulf News report.

'Economic slowdown hit the growth of the mobile industry,' said secretary general of the Association of Mobile Operators in Bangladesh, Khalid Hassan.

But with the new subscribers, Bangladesh's total mobile users stood at 45.4 million in August.

The country's leading three operators which reported steady growth were Grameenphone, owned by Norway's Telenor, ranked first with 20.84 million subscribers, followed by Egyptian Orascom Telecom's Banglalink with 10.17 million and AKTEL, with a major stake by Telekom Malaysia International, coming third with 7.3 million.

The number of cell phone users in the country is expected to touch 50 million by this year end.