Mobile operators get fewer customers

Customer acquisition by the six mobile phone operators dropped 45 percent to 0.6 million in August from 1.1 million in July.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) data showed that not a single customer was added to Grameenphone's network in August. The mobile company's customer base remained unchanged at 20.84 million during the month.
The company officials said it happened as GP strictly complied with BTRC's re-registration process. As per the company's customer acquisition process, GP considers a customer 'active' when he or she remains with the company's network for three months after getting connected.
So the new customers who signed up for Grameenphone connection will be added to the existing customer base at the end of September.
“The unchanged customer base is due to a general market slowdown, strict compliance with proper registration and a bar on non-registered customers after the end of BTRC deadline,” said Anders Jensen, chief executive officer of Grameenphone.
BTRC data showed that the number of mobile phone subscribers reached 45.4 million in August, which was 44.8 million and 43.7 million in July and June, respectively.
Earlier, in August last year BTRC issued an order to Grameenphone, AKTEL, Banglalink, Citycell and TeleTalk to re-register customers who bought connections before February 28, 2006. BTRC extended the deadline four times, which finally ended on May 31.
According to BTRC data, the top three operators are still dominating the market.
Banglalink, the market's second largest operator, has a customer base of 10.17 million with an addition of 0.27 million in August, followed by AKTEL'S 8.14 million, adding 0.16 million in August.
In terms of subscriber base, top three companies Grameenphone, Banglalink and AKTEL dominates more than 90 percent of the market, according to the BTRC.
The other three other operators -- the country's oldest mobile operators Citycell, state-owned Teletalk and UAE-based Warid -- hold the rest of the market shares.
The top three operators hold 39.154 million until August 2008, while the rest three hold only 6.25 million.
According to BTRC, Teletalk lost 0.04 million customers in August. The company's customer base was 0.93 million in July.
Citycell's subscribers increased 0.01 million to 1.68 million in August from 1.67 million in July 2008. Warid subscribers reached 3.68 million at the end of August, while the company's subscriber base was 3.48 million by the end of July 2008.