Science and Technology Desk: Voice calls and internet usage on mobile phones are decreasing rapidly. There were 196.8 million mobile subscribers in the country in June. It decreased to 190.86 million in September. Almost the same picture applies to internet usage. In June, there were 142.17 million internet users in the country. It fell to 138.62 million in September. Mobile operators say the picture is worse in October. Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (BTRC) will soon release the latest information on mobile and internet users. Bangladesh Daily spoke to senior officials of the country's top three mobile operators Grameenphone, Robi and Banglalink. They cited different reasons for the decline of mobile internet and voice.

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Grameenphone Limited Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Otto Risback said, "The recent instability and internet shutdowns and unprecedented floods in various regions have had a major negative impact on the economy and our business. In this, our income decreased by 3.8 percent to 3 thousand 950 crores, while EBITDA decreased by 8.7 percent to 2 thousand 320 crores. In this context, Mohammad Sahedul Alam, who has been working as Robi's Chief Corporate and Regulatory Officer since June 2019, said that the overall mobile revenue has decreased. We believe there are two reasons for this.

First, many SIMs have been lost since before August 5 when the internet was down. That means they no longer use the internet. Both voice and data usage were high during the anti-discrimination movement. Then it decreased rapidly. A second reason for the decline in data and voice could be the overall economic situation. He said, recently our customers have decreased by 10 to 12 percent. I think every operator's subscriber decline will have a major negative impact on the mobile business this year.

In the same context, Head of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs Department of Banglalink, Taimur Rahman said, I think people have reduced their spending on mobile phones due to the increase in commodity prices. This situation has been going on for the last three-four months. Never in the past have such low voice and data subscribers been seen. He said that recently voice calls have decreased by 10 percent and internet usage has decreased by 15 percent. He commented that it is somewhat unprecedented. Analysis of mobile voice and data usage data for four months provided by BTRC shows that the total number of subscribers of the four operators in June was 196.08 million.

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It decreased to 194.26 million in July, 192.43 million in August and 190.86 million in September. Similarly, the analysis of internet user data shows that the total number of users in June was 142.17 million. It decreased to 141.05 million in July, 140.50 million in August and 138.62 million in September. Regarding the matter, the President of Bangladesh Mobile Phone Consumer Association Mohiuddin Ahmed told Bangladesh Pratidin that due to the internet being shut down during the last three months of political unrest and agitation, most of the work of freelancers has gone abroad. As a result of which internet data usage has reduced a lot - this is true. Besides, the volume of voice calls has also reduced a lot due to the security of the citizen's information. Poor internet and network vulnerabilities are also largely responsible.