The number of active mobile phone subscribers in the country reached 10.69 crore in July as the mobile operators added more than 19 lakh new subscribers in the month maintaining the uptrend since the turn of the year. The companies witnessed a sharp fall in their businesses for three consecutive months from October to December last year after the government had imposed a number of new rules regarding SIM registration.
In July the number of Grameenphone subscribers reached 4.46 crore, as the operator got 7 lakh new subscribers in the month.
Banglalink’s subscribers’ base swelled to 2.73 crore in July from 2.70 crore in the previous month as the company added 3 lakh new subscriber in the month.
Robi added 9 lakh subscribers in July, taking the total number of subscribers to 2.37 crore.
Airtel added 76,000 subscribers and state-owned Teletalk added 8,000 subscribers in the month.
Citycell continued to lose users as the company lost 22,000 subscribers in the month.
The number of active mobile phone users crossed the 10-crore mark for the first time in April as five mobile phone operators, except Citycell, added 13.34 lakh subscribers in the month.
Earlier in September 2012, the number of total mobile phone users had hit the 9.85-crore mark before the regulators tightened the SIM registration process.
Officials of the mobile phone companies said the industry overcame the declining trend this year as the phone companies managed to redesign their SIM registration channels.
They said the BTRC restrictions regarding the SIM registration process was the key reason behind the decline, but the companies recovered through making convincing offers to the subscribers.
The BTRC in September last asked all mobile phone companies not to sell any pre-activated connections and only activate the SIMs after completion of registration in a bid to stop ‘criminal activities’ by using mobile phones.
From October to December the total number of subscribers declined by 13 lakh.
Bangladesh issued its first mobile phone licence in 1993 but the growth had been slow in the first 10 years, with the total number of subscribers reaching just 15 lakh in early 2003.
But the mobile market started growing rapidly in 2003 and the number of mobile users hit 5 crore in 2009.
-With New Age input
