Data are presented demonstrating the laser operation (quasicontinuous, similar to200 K) of an InGaP-GaAs-InGaAs heterojunction bipolar light-emitting transistor with AlGaAs confining layers and an InGaAs recombination quantum well incorporated in the p-type base region. Besides the usual spectral narrowing and mode development occurring at laser threshold, the transistor current gain beta=DeltaI(c)/DeltaI(b) in common emitter operation decreases sharply at laser threshold (6.5-->2.5,beta>1). (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.