Facebook ban took toll on mobile internet

Mobile internet usage plummeted last month on the back of the government's 22-day ban on Facebook and other social networks for security reasons.

At the end of November, the total number of active mobile internet connections stood at 5.14 crore, down 8.63 lakh from the previous month, according to data from Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission.

On November 18, the government barred popular social networking site Facebook, and internet-based calling and messaging apps WhatsApp, Viber, among others citing security reasons. The ban was lifted on December 10.

A big chunk of the subscribers buy daily or weekly packs and they stopped doing so when the social media ban was enforced, said senior executives of different mobile operators.

Grameenphone saw a drop in data subscriber figures in November as a direct response to the ban on Facebook and other social media, said Sayed Talat Kamal, head of external communications for GP.

"The drop has been particularly pronounced not only because existing customers stopped using our data services but also because new customers have refrained from accessing data due to the social media ban."

The youth, who makes up a significant portion of the subscriber base, prefers to access Facebook from their mobiles and they might have stopped buying internet packs during the ban.

In the same period, the top three operators saw their data usage drop by up to 30 percent, which also impacted their revenues. Sales of SIM cards in the six-operator market grew about 1 percent month-on-month to 11.67 lakh in November, according to the BTRC report.

Market leader Grameenphone led the way with six lakh new connections alone, which took its subscriber base to 5.64 crore.

Banglalink added about 50,000 new connections to take its total active subscriptions to 3.3 crore.

Robi and Airtel also added new connections during the month, while state-owned Teletalk and Citycell lost about 1 lakh subscribers each.

BTRC's monthly report also mentioned that internet connections through the WiMAX technology dropped in November.

At the end of November, the total active internet connections stood at 5.39 crore, down from 5.46 crore registered for the month of October.