Bangladesh’s oldest mobile phone operator Citycell continues to see loss of subscribers as the company is apparently doing nothing to boost services.
The operator witnessed loss of around 2 lakh subscribers in last one year (April 2014 to April 2015), according to the latest statistics of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).
Presently, the number of Citycell subscribers stood at 12.30 lakh, reducing from 14.25 lakh in April last year.
On the contrary, most of the mobile phone operators of country are enjoying increase of subscribers with Grameenphone leading the market. The number of Grameenphone subscribers is 5.23 crore.
During the period, Banglalink’s subscribers inched up to 1 lakh, Robi 2.66 crore, Airtel 83.51 lakh and the only state-owned operator Teletalk 40.96 lakh.
“Citycell service quality has deteriorated, which leads to loss of its market share. If the trend continuous, the operator will face drastic fall in the number of subscribers in a year,” said a BTRC official.
The operator lost 16,000 subscribers in April from March, he said.
Citycell CEO Mehboob Chowdhury could not be reached despite several attempts.
Citycell is the only CDMA network operator in the country. It is currently owned by Singtel with 45% stake and the remaining 55% is owned by the Pacific Group and Far East Telecom.
