ISLAMABAD: The number of 3G and 4G users in Pakistan reached 92.99 million by end January 2021 compared to 90.5 million by end December, registering an increase of 2.49 million, said the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA). The number of mobile phone users in Pakistan reached 177.61 million by end January compared to 175.62 million by end November, which registered an increase of 1.99 million during the period under review.

The Monthly Next Generation Mobile Service (NGMS) penetration increased from 42.43 percent in December 2020 to 43.5 percent in January 2021.

Jazz’s total count for 3G users stood at 8.89 million by end January 2021 compared 9.02 million by end December 2020, registering a decrease of 0.13 million.

Jazz 4G user numbers jumped from 25 million by end December 2020 to 26.24 million by end January 2021.

Zong 3G subscribers decreased from 5.29 million by end December 2020 to 5.17 million by end January 2021, while the number of 4G users jumped from 20.7 million by end December 2020 to 21.38 million by end January.

The number of 3G users of Telenor decreased from 6.04 million by end December to 5.95 million by end January.

The number of 4G users jumped from 14.21 million by end December 2020 to 14.96 million by end January.

Ufone 3G users decreased from 4.66 million by end December to 4.62 million by end January. The number of 4G users of Ufone increased from 5.53 million by end December 2020 to 5.74 million by end January. Teledensity for cellular mobile increased from 82.34 percent by end December to 83.09 percent by end January.

The total teledensity increased from 83.47 percent by end December 2020 to 84.22 percent by end January.

The PTA received 14,772 complaints from telecom consumers against various telecom operators including (cellular operators, PTCL, LDIs, WLL operators, and ISPs) as of January 2021.

The PTA said that it was able to get 14,721 complaints resolved i.e. 99 percent.

According to the PTA data, Zong leads the chart with 7,888 complaints and Jazz at second position as the most complained telecom operator with 3,079. The cellular mobile subscribers constitute a major part of the overall telecom subscriber base; therefore, maximum number of complaints belonged to this segment. Total number of complaints against the CMOs by January stood at 14,333.

In terms of the segregation of complaints on operator basis, Zong stood first with 7,888 complaints i.e. 55 percent of total complaints.

A total of 3,079 complaints were received against Jazz, which is 21.4 percent of the total CMO-related complaints.

Ufone had 1,030 complaints against its various services which make up 7.18 percent of the total CMO-related complaints.

Telenor, which has the second largest number of consumers, was third with 2,300 i.e. 16.04 percent complaints were received against it.

The PTA also received 106 complaints against basic telephony, where 105 were addressed during January 2021. Further, 322 complaints were received against the ISPs, where 315 were addressed.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021