The number of mobile subscribers in Bangladesh has dropped significantly in July, as all the operators lost customers.

The overall number of mobile subscribers is calculated based on the purchase of new SIMs (subscriber identity modules) minus the number of SIMs whose ownership have become invalid for being left unused for one and a half years.

Mobile network operators -- Grameenphone, Robi, Banglalink and Teletalk -- collectively lost about 18 lakh customers during the month, taking the total mobile subscriber base to 19.42 crore.

Banglalink alone lost about 9 lakh customers, bringing its customer base to 4.35 crore.

This is still 2.98 percent higher than what it had in the same period last year.

The country's second-largest operator, Robi, lost 6 lakh customers, taking its subscriber number to 5.89 crore.

This was also a 3.70 percent year-on-year growth.

The number of subscribers of Grameenphone, the leading operator, dropped to 8.52 crore from the loss of 3.1 lakh customers.

On a year-on-year basis, Grameenphone's customer base grew by 4.16 percent, the highest rate among the operators.

State-owned Teletalk lost about 50,000 customers, taking its total to 65.5 lakh.

On a year-on-year basis, the number of customers of the operator increased by 1.24 percent.

Although the number of mobile subscribers in Bangladesh exceeds the population, the actual number of unique users is significantly low.

This discrepancy arises because the current regulations allow each individual to own up to 15 SIM cards, leading to a higher subscriber count than the true number of users.

According to Bangladesh Sample Vital Statistics, a project run by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the percentage of individuals aged over 15 who own a mobile phone was lower in 2023 than in 2020.

This was attributed to a persistent decline in ownership since the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic due to grim economic conditions.

In 2023, only 74.2 percent of individuals aged 15 and older owned a mobile phone, marking a slight decline from the 75.4 percent ownership rate reported in 2020.

During the peak of the pandemic in 2021, mobile phone ownership among these individuals fell by 4.1 percentage points to 71.3 percent.

It then rebounded by 2.5 percentage points in 2022. However, last year saw a modest increase of only 0.4 percentage points as the country struggled with ongoing high inflation.

A significant finding of the Bangladesh Sample Vital Statistics is the gender gap in mobile phone usage.

While 86 percent of males reported owning a mobile phone, only 62.8 percent of females did, revealing a disparity of 23.2 percentage points.

This gap highlights a serious inequality in access to mobile technology between genders, signalling the need for targeted efforts to address the underlying causes and promote equal access to mobile devices across all groups.

Shahed Alam, Robi's chief corporate and regulatory officer, said aside from economic factors, the market for mobile phone users in the country has nearly reached saturation.

"There are around 11 million unique subscribers in the country. We've almost reached full market penetration, which has led to some observed slowdowns," he added.