Mobile phone operators added 1.74 crore new connections in the nine months to May this year.
Market leader Grameenphone added 65.62 lakh new customers to its network during the period, which is 37.68 percent of the new connections added. Robi added 76.36 lakh or 43.27 percent of the new customers, the highest among all operators, thanks to its merger with Airtel and introduction of attractive data and voice services.
In the period, Banglalink has got 24.66 lakh new subscribers while state-run Teletalk added 8.51 lakh.
The new additions brought the total number of active mobile phone connections to 13.50 crore at the end of May, according to a report of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission.
In August last year, the number of active connections had gone down to 11.78 crore mainly because of the launch of the biometric re-registration of mobile phone connections.
Biometric re-registration began in December 2015 and ended in May last year. At that time, the industry lost more than one crore subscribers as the BTRC directed operators to deactivate SIMs that were not verified biometrically.
Robi and Airtel together controlled only 26.50 percent of the market in August last year, which rose to 28.70 percent in May this year with 3.87 crore customers.
“In the post-merger scenario, our stronger network continues to drive transformative growth for the company,” said Ekram Kabir, vice president for communications and corporate responsibility of Robi.
“Our last quarter results demonstrate the power of our brand, illustrate our potential to drive long-term growth and provide evidence that we are effectively executing integrated network for the benefit of our subscribers.”
With the new additions, Grameenphone now has 6.11 crore users with a 45.26 percent market share.
As of May, Banglalink's controls 23.26 percent of the market with 3.14 crore subscribers while the numbers stand at 2.78 percent and 37.59 lakh for Teletalk.
Source: http://www.thedailystar.net/business/telecom/operators-add-174cr-new-users-9-months-1435813
