Internet use through mobile phones rises amid pandemic

According to BTRC, mobile internet penetration reached 68.92 percent in September 2021, up from 61.66 percent in April, this year. The use of the internet is rising thanks to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic that is developing a culture of doing office work from home and promoting online classes.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the mobile internet user was 93.498 million in January, 2020, across the country. And, in February 2020, this rate of mobile internet users rose by 0.738 million to 94.236 million. It is consistently increasing.

Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh Secretary General Brig. Gen. S M Farhad (Retd.), said, “There are a variety of reasons for the increasing internet usage, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic. People were forced to work from home; online education, medical treatment, e-commerce grew in popularity, and people were more dependent on the internet than ever before.”

He said people during lockdown stayed home and browsed the net for socialisation on various social media and entertainment.

“Bangladesh is progressively evolving into a digital economy, which is very crucial,” said the AMTOB leader.

At the end of April 2021, Bangladesh’s Teledensity and Internet Penetration through smartphones was 61.66 percent. In the following month the rate rose by 1.03 percent and became 62.69 percent. At the end of June, 2021, the mobile internet users increased to 66.16% and grew to 68.92 percent in September, 2021.

The Secretary General of AMTOB said: “People in Bangladesh mostly utilize social media and internet video material, which need high data transmission speeds. At the same time, online schools, Google searches, and other similar sites are often visited.”

From the records of statcounter, it is found that the most usable social media through mobile phones until October, 2021 in Bangladesh are: Facebook and YouTube. Facebook users were 95.83 percent and YouTube users were 2.18 percent. In October, 2020, the Facebook user turned to 96.86 percent and the YouTube user to 2.15 percent, respectively. That means though the mobile internet users are increasing day by day but still they are using those common social media above all.

Despite having 4G internet speed, the customers are facing slow internet speed and other issues and they are complaining and asking for quality services.

“The operators have a number of options for dealing with customers, complaints about mobile services,” he told Business Insider Bangladesh while responding to a question.

He also added that, “Customers can speak directly to the operators or via the BTRC, and concerns are addressed in both circumstances. Because the industry is so competitive, mobile carriers are constantly looking for methods to keep their consumers happy.”