The country's mobile operators lost an estimated 0.5-million internet users in November alone, thanks to the telecoms regulator's restrictions on network expansion, industry insiders said.
The number of cellular data users dropped by more than 0.5 million in November, with active internet users dropping to 99.1 million from 99.6 million.
"The year 2019 can be considered very disappointing and frustrating for the telecoms sector, Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (AMTOB) secretary Brig Gen (retd) SM Farhad.
"A series of issues continued to rattle the industry, a few of those were unprecedented," he told the FE.
Mr Farhad said BTRC's claims from the audit impacted the entire industry, including equipment suppliers and the backward-linkage one, simply stagnating network expansion and, above all, investment efforts.
According to the latest Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) statistics, a fall in the number of cellphone users and almost obsolete WiMAX subscribers has pulled down the combined total.
The number of cellular connection dropped by 4,78,000 to 93.3 million at the end of November and WiMAX subscribers fell by 33,000 to 50,000.
The number of broadband connection rose by 1,000 to 5.79 million during the period in question, the BTRC data showed. Meanwhile, Internet Service Provider Association of Bangladesh (ISPAB) President Aminul Hakim has echoed the BTRC view on the matter. Mobile internet users might not get quality service from telecoms operators and switching over to broadband internet, he observed.
Mr Hakim said the domestic ISPs are now providing better quality broadband internet service than before.
"This might be another reason of switching to broadband connection," he told the FE. However, despite a decline in mobile data users, telephone companies gained voice subscribers.
The number of subscribers increased by 6,62,000 in November as all four mobile operators managed to add customers in the month.
The number of active cellphone connection increased to 164.8 million at the end of November from 164.2 million in October, the BTRC report showed.
Robi Axiata managed to add the highest 3,93,000 subscribers in November, taking its subscriber base to 48.7 million from 48.3 million in October.
State-owned Teletalk attained the second highest 1,56,000 subscribers in the same period, totalling 4.86 million from 4.70 million in October. Banglalink's subscriber base rose by 63,000 to 35.1 million in November from 35 million a month ago.
However, telecoms giant Grameenphone managed to acquire the meagre 48,000 subscribers, taking its subscriber base to 76.1 million at the end of November.
