Bangladesh's active mobile internet connections grew about 3 percent
to 5.07 crore in August, for all six operators combined, from the
previous month.
About one crore of them began using the service in little under a
year as the four-crore threshold was reached in September 2014.
The hike highlights the younger generation's preference for the
medium, and it was boosted by fast 3G services, availability of low-cost
devices and a dismal performance of broadband providers.
Total internet connections now stand at 5.22 crore, Bangladesh
Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) said in its monthly
report released yesterday.
The regulator did not publish exact figures for 3G users, but said it is close to two crore.
The young generation is growingly adopting internet products, said
Mahmud Hossain, chief corporate affairs officer of Grameenphone.
“The youth's entertainment and some academic activities have also come aboard internet platforms,” Hossain said.
Moreover, attractive packages offered by the mobile operators encouraged customers to use mobile internet, he added.
By contrast, WiMax and ISPs have both lost users -- about 6,000 and
15,000 respectively. There are just 1.6 lakh clients left for WiMax and
13.08 lakh for ISPs.
Five crore is a very attractive number for active internet
connections, but real users are probably much lower -- about three
crore, said Mustafa Jabbar, an IT expert.
“Users opt for mobile internet as they have no alternative. That's
where the government has failed to provide real broadband,” said Jabbar,
also a former president of Bangladesh Computer Samity.
If mobile operators offer superior services, the numbers could go up
further, he said, adding that the availability of devices also plays an
important role.
Though the number of connections is much lower than mobile internet,
the ISPs are still the major source of broadband internet, and real-user
numbers are at least five to six times greater than total connections,
said MA Hakim, president of ISP Association.
Mobile operators also saw a growth in active SIM users, which now
stand at 13.08 crore, but it was not homogenous as four telecom
operators gained clients at the cost of two.
Market leader Grameenphone added 11 lakh new subscribers in August,
boosting its total subscriber base to 5.5 crore, while Banglalink signed
up 3.28 crore subscribers after adding four lakh new connections.
Robi also added four lakh new subscribers in August, taking its total
to 2.83 crore, whereas Airtel added 3.12 lakh subscribers to its
network to take the total to 93.92 lakh.
Teletalk, the lone state-owned mobile operator, lost 1.42 lakh
subscribers in August, falling to 40.79 lakh total connections, BTRC
reported. It however claimed to have crossed the 50 lakh active
connections landmark recently, in a separate report to the government.
Citycell lost some 23,000 subscribers, with current active connections coming down to 11.38 lakh in August.
