According to data released by the Bangladesh Telecommunication and Regulatory Commission (BTRC), the country’s four telecom operators lost 3.65 million mobile subscribers during the July-August uprising. Additionally, 2.2 million internet subscribers were lost over the same period.
By the end of August, the total number of active mobile subscribers in Bangladesh stood at 192.43 million, a decrease of 1.82 million in July and 1.83 million in August, compared to 196.09 million in June.
Grameenphone, Bangladesh’s largest telecom operator, saw its subscriber base fall by 450,000, lowering its total to 85.08 million by the end of August. Banglalink suffered the largest loss, with 2.01 million subscribers dropping off, leaving it with 42.47 million users. Robi Axiata lost 1.15 million subscribers, bringing its total to 58.36 million, while state-owned Teletalk experienced a slight decrease of about 30,000 users.
The cause of this significant subscriber decline during the period remains unclear, though it follows five consecutive months of subscriber growth prior to July.
