The number of customers of telecom operators in the country continued to decline in August, as per the latest data from Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).
As per the data from the regulator, the total number of customers in the country dropped by about 500,000 in August to 183.5 million.
The country’s top operator Grameenphone alone lost about 950,000 customers in August, taking its subscriber base from 84 million to 83.1 million.
Grameenphone lost another 800,000 customers in July, losing about 0.17 million customers in the last two months.
However, the country’s other two operators — Robi and Banglalink — added about 200,000 and 300,000 customers respectively in August while state-run operator Teletalk's figures remained almost unchanged at 6.7 million.
However, the number of customers gained by the other two private operators was not sufficient to cover the number of customers lost by Grameenphone in July and August.
According to sources, the mobile subscribers in the country continued to decline in August after the regulator banned Grameenphone from selling new SIMs at the end of June citing its inability to provide quality service and high frequency of call drops.
In the two months, the country's mobile subscribers base dropped by 900,000 regardless of customer gains by the other operators.
However, on a year-on-year basis, operator subscribers in the country still have been decent.
On a year-on-year basis, the number of customers of Robi increased by 5.2% to 54.9 million in August, while the number of subscribers of Banglalink rose by about 4.7% on a year-on-year basis in June to about 38.7 million.
Despite the recent fall, the number of subscribers of Grameenphone remained almost unchanged year-on-year in August, retaining its position as the market leader, accounting for 45.30% of the market share based on subscribers.
Insiders said the overall growth in the number of subscribers has slowed down in the industry, but it is expected to gain momentum again once the ban on Grameenphone SIM sales is lifted.
It is also noteworthy that, despite the ban on the telecom operator, BTRC has recently allowed Grameenphone to sell unused pre-approved old numbers that were not in operation for over 450 days.