Broadband internet connectivity ahead in growth
In the first three months of this year, the number of active mobile SIMs in the country increased by 30 lakh and internet connections increased by 20 lakh. Although the new-year started with a total of 18 crore 8 lakh subscribers, the number of active mobile SIM users crossed 18 crore 38 lakh in March. In February this number was 18 crore 26 lakh.
Similarly, the total number of Internet subscribers reached 12 crore 61 lakh at the end of March. In January and February, this number was 12 crore 40 lakh and 12 crore 5 lakh respectively. In the first two months, 10 lakh new internet subscribers increased, but this number doubled in March. Broadband internet subscribers also increased in the same month. Although there are 1 crore 18 lakh broadband internet connections from December to February. In March, it increased to 1 crore 20 lakhs.
According to the latest subscriber statistics of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), there are more than 11 crore 40 lakh mobile internet subscribers and more than 1 crore 20 lakh broadband internet subscribers in the country.
Mobile internet subscribers are increasing regularly every month. While there were 11 crore 22 lakh connections in January, this number increased to 11 crore 40 lakh in March. In other words, it has increased by 18 lakh within three months. However, from February to March, it increased only by 8 lakh.
According to BTRC data, in July last year, the number of internet users in the country was slightly more than 12 crore 75 lakh. Since then it started to decrease. Mobile phone internet subscribers in particular continue to decline significantly.
The latest data of BTRC on the increase in the number of mobile phone subscribers in the country in the last three months says that Grameenphone has 8 crore 3 lakh subscribers, Robi has 5 crore 55 lakh, Banglalink has 4 crore 13 lakh and Teletalk has 66 lakh. Except for Teletalk, the number of subscribers of the remaining three operators has increased.
In June last year, there were 18 crore 44 lakh mobile phone subscribers in the country. Questioning the quality of service, BTRC banned the sale of Grameenphone SIM on June 29 that year. As a result of this ban, the operator stopped selling about 40,000 SIMs per day. Apart from this they lost about 35 lakh customers. Grameenphone's ban on selling SIMs also reduced its overall subscriber base. The ban was lifted on January 2 this year.
