1 lakh join mobile network in January

The momentum in new customers joining the mobile phone network staggered in January as only 0.1 million (1 lakh) users were injected into the six-operator mobile market.
The total number of cellphone customers reached 44.74 million in January, which was 44.64 million a month ago. Grameenphone, state-run TeleTalk and Warid witnessed negative customer acquisition growth in January, according to the latest data from the telecom watchdog.
The drop was mainly due to the cautious business strategy followed by Grameenphone that slowed the company in adding new customers, a company official said yesterday.
"We did not offer free airtime packages because the company did not want to pursue loss projects," the official said.
Grameenphone is conscious and eager to maintain a healthy balance sheet, as the company's listing in the capital market is now under consideration by the stock market regulator.
However, Grameenphone still holds the market's top position with 20.94 million customers.
Telekom Malaysia's majority controlled AKTEL added the highest number of new customers, 0.27 million, in January to reach 8.47 million. It remains the third largest player in the market. Egyptian Banglalink also held on to its second position, adding 0.08 million customers in the same month to reach 10.41 million.
According to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) data, the number of Warid Telecom customers dropped to 2.25 million in January, which was 2.33 million a month ago. Citycell added 0.02 million customers in January to reach 1.83 million. Losing 0.14 million customers, TeleTalk remained at the bottom of the pyramid with 0.84 million customers.
Meanwhile, slow entrance of customers into the mobile market has been continuing over the last few months. The market as a whole has been suffering due to the operators' business strategy to reduce subsidies for selling connection.
Since July the mobile operators decided not to pay SIM taxes for every new connection, which they previously used to pay. Now the customers have to pay a portion of the tax, ranging from Tk 500 to Tk 800 in different packages.
As per the budget for the current fiscal year, customers have to pay Tk 800 to purchase each connection.
The operators' reluctance to sell free connection hurts rolling out untapped rural areas.