Bangladesh-based Grameenphone reported declines in profit and revenue in Q1 despite subscriber gains, as the impact of Covid-19 (coronavirus) restrictions pushed ARPU lower.

Net profit dropped 16.7 per cent year-on-year to BDT8.9 billion ($104.9 million), attributed to higher finance costs and one-off adjustments in 2019.

Revenue fell 3.7 per cent to BDT34.8 billion, with data down 4.4 per cent to BDT8.2 billion due to an 8.4 per cent decrease in related ARPU.

CEO Yasir Azman stated the company faced increased volatility as Bangladesh experienced its worst wave of the pandemic.

He noted Grameenphone would persist in focusing on collaborative efforts to support a recovery, “continue to enrich our service propositions” and enable national moves towards “growth and digitalisation”.

Its mobile subscriber base grew 7.2 per cent to 80.7 million, with LTE customers up 50.7 per cent to 21.5 million. Active data users rose 3.4 per cent to 41.7 million.

Mobile ARPU dropped 8.6 per cent to BDT143.

The operator added 1,510 4G sites, taking its total to 15,590.