In the last 10 months, the country’s mobile phone operators have lost about one million customers due to various financial reasons, including high inflation, VAT, and supplementary tariff pressure. The latest data from the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) says that more than 98 lakh mobile phone connections have been closed from June 2024 to March 2025. Of these, the most affected by Banglalink, whose customers were reduced to about 62 lakh 50 thousand.
During this period, the subscribers of Banglalink decreased by about 14 lakh 44 thousand and Robi customers decreased by about 31 lakh 50 thousand. Teletalk lost 20,000 customers.
Statistics say that in June 2024, the number of Grameenphone subscribers was 8 crore 55 lakh 30 thousand, which fell to 8 million 40 million 90 thousand in March. At the same time Robi’s customers have dropped 5 crore 95 lakhs to 10 thousand to 5 crore 63 lakh 60 thousand. And the number of Banglalink subscribers has decreased from 4 crore 44 lakh 80 thousand to 3 crore 82 lakh 30 thousand.
Mobile phone operators claim that many customers have stopped using additional SIMs due to economic downturn and human cost contraction. Many people are forced to reduce mobile and Internet costs as the cost of living is increasing. At the same time, VAT and tariff on mobile services have virtually challenged the business environment of the operators.
Experts say the ongoing economic pressure and the cost of increasing the cost of mobile services in the country are becoming a major obstacle to the expansion of digital connections. If this trend continues, they fear that sustainable growth in the mobile sector may be at risk.
