48% mobile phone users in Bangladesh have smartphone

Smartphone penetration in Bangladesh is fast approaching after the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital technologies.

As a result, smart phone user stands at 48 per cent in tge country while it was 38 per cent before the pandemic, reports TDS.

From March 2020 to March 2022, mobile network operators added 1.8 crore new internet users, taking the total number of subscribers to 11.39 crore.

Before the outbreak of the health crisis, about half of the customers of Robi Axiata, the first operator in Bangladesh to have launched 4G, had smartphones. It moved past 60 per cent in March this year.

With 54.07 million customers, Robi Axiata is the second-largest mobile phone operator in the country.

Around 50 per cent of Banglalink‍‍`s 38.70 million subscribers have smart devices at the present, while 42 per cent of Grameenphone‍‍`s 83.87 million users use smartphones.

However, the current pace of smartphone penetration could face a setback as the sales growth of smart devices slowed in the first quarter of 2022.

Device manufacturers sold 2.85 million smartphones in the January-March quarter, up by only 20,000 devices compared to the same quarter a year ago.