State-run mobile operator TeleTalk has set a target to earn Tk 32 crore in net profit in the current fiscal year, adding 18 lakh new customers to its network. The TeleTalk board set the target at a time when the overall mobile market witnessed a downward trend in earnings.

Industry insiders expressed doubt over TeleTalk's net profit target and termed it ambitious. But Iqbal Mahmud, chairman of TeleTalk, said yesterday: "This is not whimsical. The profit target has been set based on good calculations."

The posts and telecommunications ministry has selected Mujibur Rahman, general manager of the Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board, as managing director of the Teletalk Bangladesh Limited, a state-owned mobile phone operator.