Grameenphone (GP) has accounted 50,000 subscribers who switched to other operators since the mobile number portability (MNP) introduced in October last year, according to the telecoms regulator.
With a subscriber base of a little over 70 million as of August this year, GP, owned by Norway-based Telenor, is the largest operator in Bangladesh.
MNP was rolled out on Oct 1, 2018, which the regulator says will ensure a level playing field for all the operators.
Between October and December of 2018, a total of 120,435 mobile phone users filed for switching operators, according to a report released by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) on Tuesday (Jan 15).
As many 49,658 subscribers opted to leave GP, followed by Banglalink (32,256) and Teletalk (20,293) with Robi (18,228) accounting the least number of users switching to other operators, it said.
Most of the subscribers opted to switch to Robi, according to the BTRC report.
With a subscriber base of 46.13 million (August 2018), Robi is the second largest operator in the country. It is majority-owned by the Malaysia-based Axiata Group.
According to the statement, a total of 106,343 new subscribers has been added to the five mobile operators during this period with Robi received maximum users.
As many 72,005 users opted for Robi followed by Banglalink (22,325) and Grameenphone (10,491).
State-run Teletalk got only 1,522 subscribers between October and December last year.
In December last year, 29,258 users switched to other operators with 14,061 subscribers left Grameenphone, 11299 Banglalink, 3228 Robi and 940 Teletalk
A user can switches operator with a cost of Tk 57.50.