Number of internet subscribers rises after 8 months

The number of internet subscribers in Bangladesh has rebounded after eight consecutive months of decline, with 750,000 new users added across mobile and broadband services in March, according to the latest data from the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).

This modest recovery follows a gain of just 10,000 users in February, after a cumulative loss of 11.57 million subscribers between June 2024 and January 2025. Of the new addition in March, 190,000 were mobile internet users, while the remaining 560,000 were broadband subscribers.

Due to the large number of internet service providers (ISPs) and the typically low monthly churn rate in fixed broadband connections, BTRC updates broadband user data-including those from both ISP and PSTN operators-on a quarterly basis.

In contrast, the number of mobile phone subscribers continues to decline. The country lost 460,000 mobile users in March alone. Among the operators, Grameenphone did not lose its customer base during the month, while Robi, the second-largest operator, lost 30,000 subscribers, Banglalink 410,000 and state-run Teletalk 20,000.

According to BTRC, a mobile subscriber is a biometric-verified user who has had at least one activity (voice, data, SMS, etc.) in the past 90 days. On the other hand, internet subscribers are those who have accessed the internet at least once during the same period.

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