Mobile phone users in Bangladesh top 140 million

More than 140 million people, out of Bangladesh’s population of 160 million, use mobile phones while around 80 million people access the internet, say the telecom regulators.

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission or BTRC released the latest figures on Tuesday.

The number of mobile subscribers was a little over 140.7 million by the end of September this year against 120 million during the same period last year, marking an 18 percent growth.

Grameenphone tops the chart boasting 63.8 million subscribers with the merged Airtel-Robi commanding 41.2 million subscribers.

Banglalink is a distant third with 32.3 million subscribers while state-owned operator Teletalk is struggling with 3.24 million subscribers.

The number of people with access to the internet has also grown by 18 percent in one year.

Nearly 73.8 million people access the World Wide Web by mobile phones, making up 93 percent of the total users.

Around 5.2 million subscribe to different Internet Service Providers and Public Switched Telephone Network to connect to the internet.

The number of WiMAX users has increased to 90,000 over the same period.

“The rise in the number of mobile phone and internet users indicate economic progress of the country,” said TIM Nurul Kabir, Secretary General of the Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh, on Tuesday.

Digital services in Bangladesh will flourish even more if the internet users are exempted from paying VAT, he suggested.