Telecom sector witnesses mixed year

ISMAIL HOSSAIN | Published: December 31, 2022 23:01:45

The country's telecom sector witnessed a mixed year in 2022, with some optimistic events like 5G spectrum auction and off-putting events like SIM sale ban on the largest mobile operator Grameen Phone.
The country's telecom regulator launched 5G spectrum auction for mobile phone operators and three operators completed the 5G trial run by December 31 in 2022.
Bangladesh Telecommu-nication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) earned around $1.23 billion or Tk 106.45 billion by auctioning 190MHz 5G spectrums on March 30.
The statistics of BTRC showed a negative trend in number of mobile subscribers. It said the number
of mobile subscribers decreased in the year while that of handsets manufactured by local factories also waned.
The year began with 180.78 million mobile subscribers which rose to 184.43 million in June but the number has since been decreasing. The country had 181.67 million mobile phone subscribers in October 2022.
Industry insiders said the mobile subscribers' number in the country may go down even below from that of the users in January 2022.
The regulator's ban on sale of Grameenphone SIM contributed singlehandedly to reduction of number of mobile subscribers, they said.
In an unprecedented move on June 29, 2022, BTRC placed an indefinite suspension on new Grameenphone SIM card sales due to the operator's "failure to provide quality service".
Production of handsets by the local companies dropped more than half in 2022.
According BTRC statistics until November this year, 1.72 million handsets were produced in November while the number of handsets production was 4.14 million in January.
The import of handsets also decreased during the period from 61,891 to only 2,500, according to BTRC data.
However, internet subscribers for both mobile and broadband increased in 2022.
BTRC data shows, internet subscribers stood at 12618 million in October from 121.87 in January.
Industry report said, the use of mobile data also increased manifold in 2022.
In a major regulatory move, BTRC declared mobile tower company Edotco Bangladesh as a significant market power (SMP).
New restrictions on Edotco include putting bar on leasing, buying or installing not more than 25 per cent (of the needed) towers in a quarter of a financial year.
BTRC awarded four submarine cable licenses in 2022 in the private sector.
bdsmile@gmail.com