FE REPORT
Bangladesh witnessed a drastic drop of 4.38-million mobile internet subscribers in November 2024, marking the largest single-month decline since August 2021.
This reduction brought the total number of internet subscribers down to 132.8 million from 137.18 million in October, according to data available with the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).
Moreover, the November ceiling extends a downward trend that has persisted for five consecutive months since July.
During the period, the total number of internet subscribers has plummeted by a staggering 9.0 million.
The country's mobile subscribers also witnessed a decline in November, reaching out to 188.78 million from 189.96 in October.
All cellphone operators, excepting the state-owned Teletalk, have witnessed a decline in subscriptions for five straight months up to November.
They lost 1.18 subscribers during the period, said the BTRC, adding that Teletalk was the sole operator to gain users with 100,000 new ones in November.
Since July 2024, the industry lost 7.38 million subscribers.
The BTRC calculates the total number of mobile users by adding new SIM card purchases and removing SIMs that have been inactive for more than 18 months.
Despite a drop from October, the number of mobile phone users in November was still 1.58 million higher than that in the same period of 2023.
Before starting to drop, the number of total cellphone users gradually rose for five consecutive months before July, according to the BTRC data.
In Bangladesh, the number of mobile phone subscribers is higher than its population, but the actual number of individual users is much lower.
This rise in the number of users is due to a strategy that allows each person to own up to 15 SIM cards, thereby inflating the subscriber count.
According to the BTRC, internet subscriber means the users who have accessed the internet at least once in the preceding 90 days.
© 2025 - All Rights with The Financial Express
