The number of mobile subscribers grew in February, with the third-largest operator, Banglalink, staging the strongest performance.

Mobile network operators -- Grameenphone, Robi, Banglalink and Teletalk -- collectively added about 9.2 lakh customers during the month, taking the total mobile subscriber base to 191.3 crore.

Banglalink alone acquired 5.3 lakh customers, taking its customer base to 4.39 crore.

Taimur Rahman, Banglalink's chief corporate and regulatory affairs officer, said: "In February 2024, Banglalink secured the top position in subscriber growth, thanks to our improved 4G network, nationwide coverage expansion, enhanced network capacity, and rollout of new spectrum, which has also resulted in us being able to be the fastest mobile network in the country as per Ookla for the fourth year in a row."

"We are grateful to our customers for trusting us and for being with us and are looking forward to being a part of building a smart Bangladesh."

On a year-on-year basis, Banglalink's customers grew by 7.61 percent, the highest rate among operators.

The country's second-largest operator, Robi, added 70,000 new customers in February as its subscriber numbers rose to 5.83 crore.

On a year-on-year basis, Robi's customer base grew by 5.80 per cent.

Grameenphone, the leading operator, took its total number of customers to 8.25 crore by adding 3.1 lakh new customers in February.

On a year-on-year basis, Grameenphone's subscriber base grew by 3.28 percent.

State-owned Teletalk added about 20,000 customers in February, taking its total to 65 lakh.

On a year-on-year basis, the number of customers of the operator declined by 2.84 per cent.

In January, the mobile subscriber base fell by 4 lakh to 19.04 crore compared to the preceding month.

A subscriber is a biometric verified subscriber or subscription that has been active at least once in the preceding 90 days. One person can use as many as 15 SIMs.

The BTRC have not revealed the number of unique subscribers in the country.

But officials of mobile operators estimate there are 11 crore individuals who use mobile phones.

About 74.2 percent of people aged over 15 owned a mobile phone in Bangladesh in 2023, according to the Bangladesh Sample Vital Statistics, a project run by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.