The number of subscribers of the country’s three private mobile phone operators — Grameenphone, Robi and Banglalink — increased by 30.63 lakh in July this year while state-owned Teletalk lost 75,000 subscribers in the month.

So, the total number of mobile phone subscribers in the country rose by 29.87 lakh to 16.43 crore at the end of July this year from 16.13 crore a month ago.

Officials of the telecom operators said that the improvement was a reflection of the gradual restoration of normalcy in public movement even though the coronavirus outbreak was yet to be brought under control.

As per the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission data released on Monday, the total subscribers of leading mobile phone Grameenphone increased by 15.53 lakh to 7.61 crore at the end of July from 7.45 crore in the previous month.

The number of subscribers of Robi increased by 11.23 lakh and that of Banglalink by 3.87 lakh in July this year.

With the increase in July, Robi’s subscriber base increased to 4.91 crore at the end of July from 4.8 crore a month earlier.

The number of customers of Banglalink increased to 3.44 crore from 3.4 crore, the BTRC data showed.

However, Teletalk’s customer base dropped to 46.81 lakh from 47.57 lakh.

The growth in July came after witnessing three disappointing months amid the coronavirus outbreak.

The number of mobile phone subscribers dropped by 40 lakh to 16.12 crore at the end of June this year from 16.53 crore at the end of March.

Along with the improved number of subscriber base, the number of active mobile internet subscribers in the country also increased in July.

The number of mobile internet subscribers increased by 29.35 lakh to 9.78 crore at the end of July from 9.49 crore a month ago.

The BTRC data also showed that the number of broadband internet subscribers remained unchanged at 85.71 lakh as of July this year.