Keep your Bangladeshi phone number active while abroad
Keep a Bangladeshi number active abroad: BTRC recycle is 11 months unused then notice. GP matrix then 60-day suspend. Useful Information suspends 365 days.
Checked against official pages on September 29, 2026. Rules move; when this one does, it goes on the changelog.
| Carrier | Accounts | If you do nothing | Cheapest hold | Roaming for codes | Twelve months |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grameenphone | prepaid | Recharge matrix. Tk 20-149 prints 30 Days, 150-299 prints 60 Days, 300 and above prints 365 Days. After expiry, suspend 60 days, incoming call and SMS only. Leftover only inside validity or that 60 days. Reactivate within 12 months (365 days). Useful Information suspends 365 days after expiry | A recharge in a printed band. Tk 20-149 prints 30 Days | Unverified | unverified as an annual retention charge. Tk 300 and above prints 365 Days of validity, not a published retention fee |
| Robi | prepaid | Recycle page. Unused 11 months will be recycled. FAQ prints 11th Months (330 unused days) then 30 Days or 90 Days' notice as applicable | unverified as a published Robi validity table. The page we opened is a recycle search | Unverified | unverified as a published annual retention charge |
Keep a Bangladeshi number active abroad against a BTRC unused-SIM recycle of 11 months unused then notice, as The Daily Star and Robi print it. Grameenphone's recharge matrix sells Grameenphone recharge validity of 30, 60 or 365 days, then a Grameenphone prepaid 60-day suspend, incoming call and SMS only. Leftover taka only carry forward inside that window; Useful Information suspends for 365 days after recharge expiry, and that is another Grameenphone file.
The regulator recycle is not the recharge table
The Daily Star of 18 December 2024, opened with WebFetch on 29 September 2026, states: "Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has shortened the recycling period for inactive SIM cards from 18 months to 12 months in a bid to address a shortage of mobile numbers available in the country." The same article states: "The new directive mandates 11 months of inactivity, followed by a 30-day notice period before operators can recycle the unused numbers." That 11-plus-30 is the unused-SIM recycle as that article printed the directive. The same article quotes Shahed Alam, chief corporate and regulatory officer of Robi Axiata: "We welcome the decision to reduce the retention period for unused SIMs from 540 days to 360 days." Those 540 and 360 days stay labeled as that newspaper.
Robi's recycled-numbers page, WebFetch the same day, states: "As per BTRC’s policy, Robi numbers unused for 11 months will be recycled." The FAQ on that page states: "As per Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission’s Directive, any robi number that is unused for 11th Months (330 unused days) continuously, can be recycled and used for re-selling with 30 Days or 90 Days’ notice period (as applicable)." Robi prepaid unused 330 days is printed next to 11th Months. It is not arithmetic from 11 months invented on this site.
A WebFetch of btrc.gov.bd on 29 September 2026 returned news and meeting notes. That homepage does not print a prepaid inactivity day count. A BTRC-hosted PDF of the 17 November 2024 unused-SIM recycle guideline was not opened on btrc.gov.bd that day. A third-party copy at https://cdn2.ogrlegal.com/files/telecom/directives/Issued_17-11-2024_Guidelines_for_Recycle_Validity_of_Unused_SIM.pdf was WebFetched the same day; the extract is OCR-garbled Bangla, so it stays unquoted.
the Grameenphone notice of 15 May 2024, WebFetch the same day, states: "This is to inform all concerned users of Grameenphone prepaid and postpaid connections (which are unused since 14 March 2023 or before) and all skitto connections (which are unused since 10 January 2023 or before) will be permanently closed 3 (three) months after the publication of this notice." That is unused since 14 March 2023 plus three months after the notice. It is not the live matrix 60-day suspend, and it is not the Daily Star 11-plus-30 recycle.
The two cards split the documents: Grameenphone is the recharge matrix plus Useful Information, Robi is the 11-month recycle page.
Grameenphone prints 60 days on one page and 365 on another
curl.exe of Grameenphone's recharge validity matrix on 29 September 2026 returned 160,785 bytes of SSR HTML, HTTP 200, and WebFetch of the same URL that day returned the same rows. The table prints "20-149" / "30 Days", "150-299" / "60 Days", "300 and above" / "365 Days". After that validity the same page states: After the expiration of the recharge validity (main account validity), GP may without any notice, suspend prepaid customer’s account for 60 days. During suspension period, prepaid customers can avail only Incoming call and SMS service. After the suspension period, all services including Incoming call and SMS service will be stopped, any outstanding emergency balance dues will be adjusted from main account balance. GP is not liable to inform subscriber about the suspension of his/her account.
Reactivation is a later sentence on that matrix: "After expiry of recharge validity, prepaid customer can easily reactivate the number by recharging anytime within 12 months (365 days). After this period, Grameenphone prepaid connections will be permanently deactivated." Those 12 months (365 days) sit after the 60-day suspend. They are not the 60 days, and they are not added to the 60 days.
Grameenphone's Useful Information Additional Terms Prepaid, item 7, WebFetch the same day, states: After the expiration of the validity of the recharge, GP may without any notice, suspend a subscriber’s account for 365 days. GP is not liable to inform a subscriber about the suspension of his/her account. Item 3 on that page states: "The different stages in the life cycle of a Prepaid subscriber’s account will be known as idle, active, suspended deleted/permanently disconnected/retired state the whole period shall not exceed 365 days under any circumstances." That 365-day suspend is a different Grameenphone file from the matrix's 60 days.
Grameenphone's Emergency Balance terms, WebFetch the same day, state: Upon expiry of the recharge validity, GP may suspend the connection after 60 days. That 60 aligns with the matrix, not with Useful Information's 365.
The matrix 60 and the T&Cs 365 stay two files. Matrix 12 months (365 days) is not Useful Information's 365-day suspend. Neither 365 is Robi's 11 months.
Leftover taka are not the number
The matrix states: "The main account balance can be carried forward only if a customer recharges within the validity period of the previous recharge or within the suspension period of 60 days. Any recharge after the expiry of the mentioned period shall not be refundable nor shall revive the connection." That leftover Bangladesh prepaid balance revive window is printed there. After it, a recharge does not bring the line back on that sentence.
Useful Information item 6 uses the same shape with the other suspend: "The balance of an account can be carried forward only if a subscriber recharges within the validity period of the previous recharge or within the suspension period of 365 days. Any recharge after the expiry of the mentioned period shall not be refundable nor shall revive the connection."
Nepal can already show leftover rupees on a barred line. Taiwan leftover NT$ is a transfer or refund after the number is recovered. Grameenphone leftover on the pages we opened moves only if a recharge lands inside previous validity or the printed suspend. Leftover taka are not the BTRC 11-month recycle floor.
Holding, parking, porting or letting the number go is compared on the options page.
What we could read
Banglalink's prepaid recycle clock was not opened on 29 September 2026. Teletalk's Closed SIM Offer English page we opened that day is a selected-customer promo, not a recycle day count.
Tk 695 / 3 years and Tk 995 / 5 years are one Grameenphone validity-pack SKU. Tk 997 / 3 years and Tk 1498 / 5 years are the extender SKU. They stay two products. After the extender pack expires, that product page sends the customer under recycle process; that sentence lives on the Grameenphone card.
Open Doors 2025 Fast Facts puts Bangladesh at 20,156 students in the United States in 2024/25, 1.7 percent of the total, up 17.9 percent from 17,099 in 2023/24. When a rule on this site moves, it is logged on the changelog.
Questions people ask
Is 365 days how long I keep a Bangladeshi prepaid number?
No. Grameenphone's matrix prints 365 Days as main-account validity for Tk 300 and above, then a 60-day incoming-only suspend, then 12 months (365 days) to reactivate. Useful Information suspends for 365 days after recharge expiry. The Daily Star and Robi print 11 months unused then notice, and Robi prints that as 330 unused days. Those 365s and 11 months are not one clock for keeping a Bangladeshi number active abroad.
Does leftover prepaid credit keep a Bangladeshi number active?
No. On the matrix, leftover carries forward only inside previous validity or the 60-day suspend; after that window a recharge shall not revive the connection. Useful Information says the same shape with a 365-day suspend. Nepal leftover rupees can already sit on a barred line. Taiwan leftover is money after the number is recovered.
Is 15 months still how long operators wait before recycling?
No: The Daily Star prints 11 months of inactivity then a 30-day notice, and Robi's recycle page prints unused 11 months; the Grameenphone notice is unused since 14 March 2023 plus three months after the notice.