Number of mobile phone users increases to 15.75cr
BSS, Dhaka
Overcoming a modest setback at the end of last year, mobile phone operators in Bangladesh revamped to a growth in both new connections and internet users.
In January, mobile phone users increased by 5.55 lakh to 15.75 crore while total internet users stood at 9.14 crore, according to the latest statistics of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) released yesterday.
Apart from the market leader Grameenphone, remaining operators lost customers in last December as effective SIM connections declined by 5.90 lakh in the period along with the fall of 4.70 lakh internet connections.
But, all the operators in January regained the upward trend of both new connections and internet users.
After January, customer base of Grameenphone stood at 7.30 crore followed by Robi 4.69 crore, Banglalink 3.36 crore and lone state-own operator Teletalk had a base of 38.85 lakh customers.
Meanwhile, the much awaited mobile number portability (MNP) was introduced in October last which has brought opportunity for the users to switch to another operator retaining the existing number. Market insiders opined the MNP has pushed the growth of mobile phone users in a sluggish trend.
BTRC statistics showed the total number of mobile phone based internet users rose to 8.56 crore in January followed by WiMAX 6,000, and ISP and PSTN 57,000.
