4G users now 2.15cr

About 2.15 crore active users are now availing fourth generation (4G) mobile internet connections, according to a report of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC). 

Following the launch of the country’s fastest mobile data service in February last year, this is a big achievement, said Md Jahurul Haque, the commission’s chairman.

“Number-wise that is very lucrative but the service is not much attractive,” he said.

As of August, the number of active 3G connections was 5.73 crore. The operator-wise breakdown is not available.

The BTRC yesterday published its monthly customer report where it mentioned that the number of active internet users increased by about 19.60 lakh in August, which is by far the highest for a single month in recent years. This growth surprised industry insiders as the country’s two top mobile operators, Grameenphone and Robi, have been facing massive restrictions from the regulator which is seeking to realise dues fixed by audit.

The telecom regulator has been coming down hard on the two since July, restricting network expansion, and banning new offers and new package approval.

It also cut bandwidth of Grameenphone by 30 percent and Robi by 15 percent in July.

These, however, did not impact the inclusion of new customers, the BTRC data shows.

Of the new addition, mobile operators’ contribution was 19.59 lakh and another 1,000 were in the fixed broadband segment.

With this, the total number of active internet connections now stands at 9.81 crore, an all-time high, according to the BTRC statistics.

Mobile phone-based connections contributed the highest with 9.24 crore users followed by WiMAX with 40,000 users.

The internet service provider and public switched telephone network connections accounted for 57.35 lakh users.

The BTRC data also shows that the total active mobile connections stand at 16.26 crore, of which Grameenphone is leading with 7.56 crore followed by Robi (4.78 crore), Banglalink (3.48 crore) and Teletalk (43.87 lakh).