Bangladesh's mobile operators add 16.604m new subscribers

The total number of Bangladesh's mobile phone subscribers reached nearly 114 million at the end of December 2013 with addition of 16.604 million new users in the immediate past year, statistics of the country's telecom regulator showed Monday. With 1.042 million new addition in December last year, according to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission ( BTRC) data, the number of subscribers in the country reached 113. 784 million. The total number of Mobile Phone subscribers has reached 112. 742 million at the end of November 2013. The number of subscribers of the mobile operators -- Grameenphone, Banglalink, Axiata (Aktel), Citycell, Teletalk and Warid -- at the end of 2013 stood at 47.110 million, 28.838 million, 25.380 million, 8.269 million, 1.365 million and 2.822 million respectively, the BTRC data showed. Sector insiders say reduction in sim tax, value-added tax (VAT) applied on 3G spectrum prices, introduction of third generation mobile broadband and availability of low cost handset have virtually played a vital role to the booming growth in subscription last year. Bangladesh's tax administrator in May last year halved SIM tax and value-added tax (VAT) applied on 3G spectrum prices, helping the operators to find more new subscribers by expanding network in more new areas, they said. The country's National Board of Revenue (NBR) reportedly reduced the SIM tax to 300 taka (about 3.85 U.S. dollars) from 600 taka (about 7.69 U.S. dollars) and VAT on the 3G mobile service license and spectrum fees to 7.5 percent from 15 percent. Bangladesh's mobile operators have long been urging the government to waive SIM tax to help their efforts to bolster mobile penetration. Because, the operators in Bangladesh still sell SIM cards at subsidized rate to woo more customers from less affluent section of the society. Sector insiders say handset price, like other developing markets, also played a vital role for mobile operators to increase their subscriber base. In this connection, it would not be exaggeration to say that China-made handsets helped Bangladesh to continuously witness boom in mobile penetration, they said. "Chinese handsets are contributing a lot to the growth of Bangladesh telecom market," Faisal Alim, general secretary of the Mobile Handset Importers Association of Bangladesh, told Xinhua. Sector insiders say China-made mobile phones-- Symphony, Maximus, Micromax, Sfone, King mobile, Smart and Strawberry, Sprint, Digital, I- Max, etc -- have now earned a good name in Bangladesh market, accounting for about 90 percent of monthly sales volume. Even if Chinese handsets are relatively cheaper but they are of high quality and durable, they added. "Availability of low cost handset definitely has played an important role to increase the sub- base which otherwise would have not been possible," Md Munir Hasan, Grameenphone's director for strategy and planning, had earlier told Xinhua. He said that competition from vendors actually forced the reputed brands to introduce low-cost handsets. "So both the cheap handsets and the low-cost branded handsets have played significant role in increasing the mobile penetration in the country," Hasan said. Bangladesh currently imports about 18 to 20 million handsets every year. Over 10 percent of these sets are 3G-enabled. As Bangladesh entered the 3G or third generation mobile broadband in September, industry leaders expect sales of about 300, 000 3G- enabled mobile handsets every month in which China manufacturers have a good market share. Bangladesh's cell phone companies sold nearly 12 million new connections in 2012, raising the country's total subscribers to 97. 18 million by the end of December.