Due to the rising popularity of Mobile Voice Communication App, OTT (over the top) service, several communication apps like Skype, Whatsapp, IMO, Viber and Tango have become common with messenger topping the list.
As a result of these apps, international phone calls have fallen, said mobile phone operators.
More than 180 Gigabyte per Second Bandwidth, GPBS, is used in the country now and phone based apps use up more than 30 GPBPS.
This was 10-15 GPBS in November, 2014.
After OTT service became popular, the local voice calls of mobiles fell 8-9 per cent and IGWD calls from overseas fell by 40 per cent.
Several phone operators are getting 5-10 per cent revenue from selling several Internet packages.
Robi’s head of corporate and regulatory affairs, Shahed Alam, told Bangla Tribune: “the number of voice calls has fallen due to communication apps; number of sms has also fallen by one third.”
Due to OTT services, voice calls dropped by 20 per cent during last Eid ul Fitr.
With the arrival of 3G or 4G, Internet based voice call, video call and video streaming have raised the usage of mobile data by 100-140 per cent.
Prior to this, telecommunication specialist and senior fellow of Learn Asia, Abu Sayeed, said: “it’s natural that new technology will replace old ones and SMS numbers will also fall soon.”
Japan never had the SMS service and has been using multi-media message, MMS, since the start.
When asked, president of Internet service providers association, ISPAB, Aminul Huq Hakim, said: “most communication is done now through Whatsapp and Viber; messenger is also used.”
Relevant sources say that, mobile operators will soon launch more Internet based services and, once these begin, mobile data usage will also rise.