Mobile phone ownership among individuals in Bangladesh rose to 65.6 percent in the fourth quarter (April-June) of 2025-26, up from 64.2 percent in the same period of the previous year, according to the latest ICT Access and Use Survey released by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
The quarterly report, prepared under the project "Measuring Opportunities and Use of ICT at Individual and Household Levels by District", also showed that individual internet use climbed to 59.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2025-26, compared with 55 percent a year earlier.
The proportion of individuals using mobile phones stood at 89.6 percent, up from 88.2 percent, while computer use edged up marginally to 11.8 percent from 11.6 percent, the survey found.
At the household level, internet access reached 58.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2025-26, against 59.7 percent in the corresponding quarter of the previous year, marking a slight decline. Television ownership rose to 60.1 percent from 59.1 percent, and smartphone ownership among households increased to 75.1 percent from 74.8 percent.
Electricity access remained near-universal, covering 98.6 percent of households, while mobile phone ownership stood at 99 percent, unchanged from the previous year. Households with fixed-line phones continued to decline, falling to 0.7 percent from 0.9 percent, reflecting the ongoing shift towards mobile connectivity.
Radio ownership among households also decreased slightly, from 16 percent to 15.3 percent, over the same period.
The BBS said the survey, conducted using the Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) method, covers 24,568 selected sample areas across the country's 64 districts, with data collected quarterly from 61,632 households annually. A total of 214 trained field enumerators are involved in data collection.
As the country's National Statistical Organisation (NSO), the BBS said it is conducting the ICT Access and Use Survey 2025-26 for the second consecutive year, describing it as the largest such district-level survey undertaken in Bangladesh.
Data gathered through the survey will also be shared with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) covering 22 indicators, in addition to supporting Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) tracking and national development planning, the statistics bureau added.
