In August, Bangladesh’s mobile operators—Grameenphone, Robi, Banglalink, and Teletalk—reported a combined subscriber loss of 18 lakh, mirroring the number of customers lost in July.
This decline leaves the country’s total active subscribers at 19.24 crore.
Industry experts suggest the recent subscriber drop is primarily due to a price hike in SIM cards, which rose from Tk200 to Tk300 following the latest national budget.
The higher SIM price has seemingly discouraged new customers from purchasing SIMs, reversing the usual monthly trend of moderate subscriber growth.
Notably, Banglalink alone lost 9 lakh subscribers in August, reducing its current customer base to 4.24 crore, with a similar decline recorded in July. Robi followed, losing 6 lakh subscribers in August, bringing its total to 5.83 crore, again matching its July losses. Grameenphone saw a decrease of 1.6 lakh subscribers in August, settling at 8.5 crore active users. Teletalk experienced a more modest loss of 20,000 subscribers, leaving it with 65.3 lakh active users.
Under the current system, a customer can purchase up to 15 SIMs using a single National Identity Card (NID).
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) recently introduced a provision allowing users to extend the validity of unused SIMs by paying a fee, a rule expected to take effect shortly.
Under the previous guideline, SIMs became inactive after 480 days of non-use.
Now, subscribers can extend the SIM validity by two years at Tk300 plus tax or by three years for Tk475 plus tax. However, operators are prohibited from offering data or voice call benefits to users extending SIM validity.
Additionally, the BTRC has shortened the recycling period for unused SIMs, reducing it to 11 months, with an added one-month notification period for users.
