The mobile subscriber base in Bangladesh continues to grow as network operators in the country acquired a total of about 14 lakh customers in July, registering the biggest monthly jump in over a year.

The overall number of SIM subscribers reached 18.75 crore in July, up from 18.61 crore a month earlier, according to recent data of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).

The growth was shared by Grameenphone, Robi Axiata and Banglalink while state-run Teletalk ended up losing some customers.

The subscriber base of Robi, the country's second largest network operator, added about 5 lakh customers in July to hit 5.68 crore.

"We adopted a strategy under which we are giving each customer a similar experience of data usage quality," said Shahed Alam, chief corporate and regulatory officer of Robi.

State-owned Teletalk lost about 20,000 customers in July, bringing its total down to 64.7 lakh.

For example, Robi is consistently providing data speed of 5 Mbps to each of its customers.

"Also, we are making investments to provide customers better video experience and optimise our networks," he added.

On a year-on-year basis, Robi's subscriber base grew by 3.74 percent.

Customers of Banglalink, the third largest operator, rose by about 5 lakh in July to take its total to 4.23 crore.

An official of the company said they invested heavily on spectrum rollout and network expansion in the last one-and-a-half years, enabling customers to get better quality services, especially when it comes to mobile internet.

Banglalink won the Ookla Speedtest Award as the fastest mobile network in Bangladesh for the 7th consecutive time in 4 years recently.

Erik Aas, CEO of Banglalink, said the company has consistently prioritised network quality, which is evident by the 7th consecutive Ookla Speedtest Award.

"Our network superiority is accelerating our growth as a digital operator, enabling customers to smoothly access our diverse digital services," he said.

"We aim to utilise our fastest 4G network to continue providing best-in-class mobile telecommunication services and one-stop digital solutions through MyBL Super App and Toffee," Aas added.

On a year-on-year basis, Banglalink witnessed almost 10 percent growth in subscriber numbers in July, which was the highest among all local operators.

The top operator Grameenphone saw its subscriber base rise by more than 4 lakh in July, taking its total number of customers to around 8.19 crore.

But on a year-on-year basis, its subscribers decreased by 4.5 percent that month.

This is because the company experienced a slump in customers from July to December last year due to a ban on its SIM sales.

On June 29 last year, the telecom regulator banned Grameenphone's SIM sales until it "improves its quality of service, including bringing down the call drop rate". The ban was eventually lifted on January 2 this year.

During the six-month ban, Grameenphone lost almost 5 million customers.

Meanwhile, state-owned Teletalk lost about 20,000 customers in July, bringing its total down to 64.7 lakh.