The winners of "Aloashbei" - Mobile Application Development Contest have been awarded in a gala ceremony on October 31, 2010.

Architect Yeafesh Osman, Honorable State Minister, Ministry of Science and Information & Communication Technology handed over the awards as the chief guest of the event. Grameenphone CEO, Oddvar Hesjedal, Country Manager Microsoft Bangladesh, Feroz Mahmud and Mr. Mahboob Zaman, President of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) were also present at the occasion.

The winning applications are:

• Champion: Khoj The Search. The application has been developed by a group of 3 developers -- Md. Avishek Ahmed, M Parvez Rashid and Khalid Mahmood. All of them are lecturers at American International University–Bangladesh.
• 2nd Position – Finder Ultimate. The application has been developed by Shiblee Imtiaz Hasan, a final year undergraduate student of Computer Science at BRAC University.
• 3rd Position – IPO Result Search. This application has been developed by Sheikh Shaer Hassan, Fuad Bin Omar and Md. Fattahul Alam. All 3 of them are working in their own company "Nascenia Limited "

The Champion team received Tk. 5 lacs, the first runner-up received Tk. 2 lacs while the second runner-up got Tk. 1 lac along with crests and certificates. The winners will also get a chance to commercialize their application with Grameenphone, subject to commercial attractiveness. Grameenphone will offer additional Tk. 500,000 for further development of the software, if it is chosen for commercialization.

On 16th June 2010, Grameenphone, in association with Microsoft, introduced "Aloashbei contest", an online talent hunt for mobile application developers on www.aloashbei.com. The competition ran from 16th June to 14th August 2010 with overwhelming responses from all over Bangladesh.

A jury board consisting Grameenphone and Microsoft officials, industry professionals and academicians selected the winners. Most of the participants of the contest were university students and young professionals working at different IT companies in Bangladesh.

Grameenphone has always been the pioneer in reducing the digital divide that persists in this country. Mobile phone applications based on local needs, will be very helpful to popularize the use of internet among the common people.

Corporate Communications Department
Grameenphone Ltd.
Phone: 9882990