Numbers of both mobile and internet subscribers in the country continued to fall till November last year, statistics provided by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has showed.
The subscribers' base considerably dropped in November last from the previous month, according to the latest BTRC data.
The decline in subscribers in November 2022 was mainly due to the telecom regulator's ban on Grameenphone's SIM sales since June 29 last year, according to industry people. The ban was lifted on January 2 this year.
According to the data, the number of internet users dropped to 125.02 million in November last year, down 1.16 million from October month.
The number of internet users has fallen by about 2.53 million since July last, when the total subscriber base stood at 127.5 million.
On the other hand, mobile subscribers have dropped 8,00,000 in November, down from 181.67 million in October.
On a year-on-year basis, the number of mobile subscribers dropped by 0.6 million in November.
Grameenphone and Teletalk lost 1.07 million and 2000 subscribers respectively while Robi and Banglalink gained 60,000 and 1,60,000 users.
Industry people attributed the drop in numbers both internet and mobile users to the BTRC ban on Grameenphone's SIM sales since June 29 last year.
However, broadband internet connections, which saw massive growth during the Covid-19 pandemic, remained unchanged at 11.5 million that month.
Many people availed broadband connections in the last two and a half years as they had to rely on the internet to work, communicate, study and get updates on the pandemic, industry insiders said.
In February 2020, there were only 5.7 million broadband customers in Bangladesh and the number increased to around 10 million in December that year, but the growth began slowing at the beginning of 2022.
However, the number of unique internet users is much lower than BTRC data suggests as many people use multiple SIMs.
According to the new population census of the government, about 65 million people aged five or above in the country of total population do not use the internet.
The GSMA estimates only 31 per cent of people in the country are using mobile internet services, which is lower than the South Asian average. GSMA is an industry organisation representing the interests of
mobile operators worldwide, uniting over 750 operators with near 400 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem.
A total of 38.1 per cent of households use the internet, shows a preliminary report on the "Survey on ICT Use and Access by Individuals and Households 2022" by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) published recently.
