The number of mobile subscribers in Bangladesh rose by nearly 31 percent last year to 6.86 crore despite high taxes on new connections, according to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).
This is the highest ever increase in the growing mobile sector since the state-run BTRC started to disclose figures of customers nearly four years ago.
Last year, six mobile operators — one state-run and five private ones — altogether sold 1.621 crore new connections, 30.91 percent up compared to 2009, according to the regulator.
In 2009, the number of active subscribers grew by 17.45 percent and 29.88 percent in the year before.
Grameenphone, jointly owned by Telenor and Grameen Telecom, has retained the top position, adding 67 lakh users to take the total tally to 2.997 crore.
Second-placed Banglalink also made big stride, as it sold 56.5 lakh new connections. The number of its clients now stands at 1.9 crore.
Re-branded Robi, owned by Axiata (Bangladesh), a joint venture between Axiata Group Berhad, Malaysia, and NTT DOCOMO, Japan, added 30.7 lakh customers to end the year at third place with 1.236 crore users in total.
