The latest cellphone operator in the country, Airtel, faces a drop in subscribers over the last few months from June to September.
According to the monthly statistics issued on Thursday by the telecom regulator, Airtel witnessed a decline in 7.48% subscribers.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) reports Airtel’s active connections were 85.4 lakh till June which came down to only 79 lakh after September.
After July the number four operator’s active connections stood at 83.53 lakh that slipped into 81.43 lakh after August.
The Dhaka Tribune contacted the Airtel to learn about specific reasons for the declining subscribers, but the authorities refused to comment on this.
The BTRC report also notes that the total active mobile connections of the country stands at 11.85 crore after September, which was 11.76 crore just a month ago. In September, the market leader, Grameenphone, crossed five crore active connection landmark while the second largest operator in terms of subscribers, Banglalink, also another 3 crore milestone.
Alongside the Airtel, Citycell with 13.49 lakh subscribers also faces a fall in its subscribers, according to BTRC.
Robi, the number three operator, runs with 2.49 crore active customers while the state-owned operator, Teletalk, progresses with 37.68 lakh active connections. BTRC also reports that mobile internet users crossed four crore landmark for the first time in September while the total internet connections in the country crossed 4.23 crore.
The telecommunication industry added 15 lakh new internet connections this month.
Following September, the total number of mobile internet connections is 4.08 crore while Wi-max connections slipped into 2.62 lakh from 2.71 lakh and the internet service providers brought another 12.32 lakh households to their fold.