DHAKA, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- The total number of Bangladesh's mobile phone subscribers hit about 157 million at the end of 2018, with addition of nearly 12 million new users in last year, statistics of the country's telecom regulator showed Thursday.

According to data from the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), the number of subscribers in the country reached 156.989 million in December 2018.

Bangladesh currently has four mobile companies, three of which are foreign-backed cellphone operators.

The number of subscribers of mobile operators, Grameenphone, Robi Axiata, Banglalink and Teletalk stood at 72.732 million, 46.886 million, 33.518 million and 3.854 million respectively at the end of last year, the BTRC data showed.

According to statistics of the country's telecom regulator, the number of Bangladesh's mobile phone subscribers stood at 145.114 million at the end of December 2017.