Citycell, Airtel lose subscribers, others gain

Numbers of subscribers of mobile-phone operators Citycell and Airtel have declined.

According to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (BTRC), the country’s first cellphone operator Citycell lost 135,000 and Airtel 418,000 users in the last one year.
 
BTRC disclosed the latest figures of mobile phone and internet subscribers on Tuesday.
 
According to the telecom regulator, the number of mobile-phone users in the country rose to 122.66 million at the end of February this year from 115.98 million a year before.
 
This year’s figure represents an increase of 6.67 million users.
 
According to the regulator, country’s largest operator, Grameenphone, got highest number of additional subscribers -- 3.39 million – during the year.
 
The number of Banglalink users rose by 2.46 million, Robi by 669,000 and that of the lone state-owned operator, Teletalk by 710,000 subscribers.
 
At the end of February this year, the number of GP subscribers stood at 51.6 million, Banglalink’s 31.52 million, Robi’s 26.41 million and Taletalk’s 3.31 million.
 
BTRC said Airtel’s user-base dropped to 7.94 million in February this year from 8.36 million a year ago, while Citycell’s subscribers declined to 1.26 million from 1.4 million.
 
According to the regulator, the number of mobile-phone-based internet users had increased by 7.36 million to 41.96 million from 34.9 million during the period.
 
The number of other internet users rose by 7.29 million to 43.42 million from 36.13 million.