The number of active mobile SIMs in the country has crossed 120m, showed December data released by the telecom regulator on Wednesday.
As of December last year, the country’s mobile operators saw a total of 120.4m active SIM cards, increasing from 119.6m in November.
In April 2013 Bangladesh’s telecom industry had reached having 100m active SIMs.
The number of mobile subscribers exceeded 30m mark in July 2007.
In nine months the number rose to 40m, while it took another 17 months to reach 50m mark in September 2009.
The sector since enjoyed faster growth rates, touching 60m in July 2010, 70m in January 2011, 80m in September 2011 and 90m in April 2012.
“The growth is close to end and at the same time we are facing different challenges in the sector from the country’s political arena also,” a senior executive officer of a top mobile phone operator told Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
He said the country had already achieved more than 70% penetration and this time the growth would come down.
According to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) figures, as of December 2014 the Grameenphone led the market with 51.5m active SIMs, compared with 51.1m a month earlier.
And with this growth the leading operator’s market share reached around 43%.
Banglalink’s customer base inched up to 30.9m from 30.6m active SIMs, while Robi ended December with 25.2m, up from 25.1m users in November.
Airtel’s customer base was 7.47m in November 2014, which increased to 7.51m in December.
The state-owned operators Teletalk’s ended December with having 3.86m subscribers.
