FE Report
After several months of steady decline, both the numbers of mobile and internet subscribers in the country saw a modest rise in March 2026, according to the latest industry data.
The total number of mobile subscribers rose to 186.06 million in March from 185.84 million in February, marking a month-on-month increase of around 0.12 per cent.
This follows a gradual downward trend since July 2025, when the number of subscriptions stood at 188.87 million, before falling consistently through the latter half of the year and into early 2026.
Among operators, Grameenphone maintained its lead with 84.48 million subscribers in March, slightly up from 84.36 million in February.
Robi Axiata also recorded a marginal increase in their subscribers to 57.39 million in March from the previous month's 57.30 million.
Banglalink's subscriber base also edged up to 37.37 million, recovering from a slight downward in January and February.
However, the state-owned Teletalk's subscribers remained largely unchanged at 6.82 million.
According to industry insiders, the marginal recovery happened after a decline in the subscriber base by nearly 3.0 million between July 2025 and January 2026, reflecting SIM consolidation, stricter regulatory measures, and subdued new user growth.
A similar trend was observed in the internet segment as the number of total internet subscribers climbed to 129.62 million in March from 128.27 million in February, posting a month-on-month growth of about 1.05 per cent, according to the data.
This marks the first notable increase after a persistent decline from a peak of 135.99 million in July 2025.
Mobile internet users, who account for the bulk of the market, rose to 114.85 million in March from 113.50 million in February.
Meanwhile, the number of fixed internet users (ISP and PSTN) remained steady at 14.77 million, indicating a stable demand in the broadband segment.
The data suggest that the telecom sector might be stabilising after months of contraction, although subscriber levels remain significantly below the mid-2025 highs.
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