Bangladesh passed a new milestone in mobile phone use in April with the number of subscribers exceeding 40million, and with no sign of any slowdown in the phenomenal growth of the industry.

Spurred by falling call rates, cheaper handsets and intense competition among the country's six mobile operators, the penetration rate is now over 25 percent of the population.

The 40 million benchmark is also a hint for the industry to have 50million subscriber base by the end of the year 2008 already anticipated by both operators and regulator.

According to the Bangladesh Telecommunication and Regulatory Commission's (BTRC) latest report, the number of total mobile phone subscribers reached 40.34 million (4crore) in April.

Grameenphone has maintained its position as the number one operator with 18.6 million customers followed by Banglalink's 8.64million, AKTEL's 7.57million and Warid with 2.93 million. The country's oldest mobile operator Citycell has 1.6 million.

The only operator to lose subscriber recently has been the state-run Teletalk that has dipped below 1 million, struggling due to a lack of infrastructure and weak marketing.

Industry insiders said the actual SIM penetration rate may be less than the headline figure because out of 40 million registered subscribers it is estimated that up to 6 million customers use more than one SIM (subscriber identification module) card.

The surge in users during the past year has had some negative effects with an increased number of dropped calls and network busy signals as the operators have failed to keep pace with the growth.

And while the growth has been rapid, the country still lags behind some South Asian neighbours. A high official of a mobile phone company said Pakistan's mobile penetration had exceeded the 50 percent mark in the recent months, whereas the Bangladeshi market has had to cope with high tax on both SIM cards and handsets that hold back growth.

During the coming twelve months, the focus of the operators is expected to turn to rural areas as they believe there remains an untapped market.

"There is a big market at the bottom of the pyramid. The rural people are the major segment that are still to become subscribers," he said, adding that there was little doubt in the industry that the 50million subscriber mark will be reached by the year-end.

But while the number of users has increased, the average spending per user is decreasing, forcing all the major operators to look hard at their own costs.

hasan@thedailystar.net