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networks in August 2009 , as customers were awaiting new offers by
the operators in September. However, industry insiders said sales rose
significantly in September as a majority number of operators came
forward with new offers during mid Ramadan. According to Bangladesh
Telecommunication and Regulatory Commission (BTRC) statistics
released yesterday, the six mobile operators provided mobile phone
services to 48.91 million subscribers till August 2009. The total
number of mobile phone subscribers was 47.97 million in July. The
top mobile operator, Grameenphone, lost 0. 02 million customers in
August. The company's sales dropped, as it did not lower connection
charges, while some other operators cut connection rates from Tk 800
to below Tk 300. BTRC statistics show that the total number of
customers for Grameenphone dropped to 21.13 million in August from
21.15 million in July 2009. The number of subscribers for the
market's second largest operator, Banglalink, reached 11. 9 million
in August, up from 11.27 million in July. AKTEL crossed the 10
million subscriber mark in August, rising from 9.90 million in July.
Warid totalled 2.63 million customers, Citycell recorded 1.97
million and TeleTalk recorded 1.08 million in August 2009. Despite a
32 percent penetration rate for Bangladesh, there are debates over
how many people actually use the mobile phone. Zakiul Islam,
president of Association of Mobile Telecom Operators in Bangladesh,
said the telecom regulator should come forward with a unified
subscriber reporting format so that the actual number of users can be
seen.
