The number of cellular subscribers has declined by 1.7 million during last one month due to SIMs verification through Biometric Verification System (BVS) whereas unverified SIMs had been blocked country-wide, it is learnt. According to the latest figures released by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), the number of total cellular subscribers reached 134.9 million by March 15, 2105 against 136.63 million in February this year. According to senior official's main reasons behind the decline in cellular subscribers was the blockage of unverified SIMs through BVS.
However, the data shows that telecom operators have added over 12.07 million 3G users till March 2015 as compared to 10.34 million in February, showing reasonable growth in modern mobile broadband services with each passing month. All four 3G operators added some 1.73 million users on to their networks from February 15-March 15, 2015. The number of 4G (Zong) users jumped from 7261 subscribers to 31582 subscribers during this period.
According to PTA, the number of Zong, Mobilink, Ufone and Telenor reached 2.9 million, 2.8 million, 2.6 million and 3.5 million 3G users respectively by March 15, 2015. According to telecom experts, the main reason behind the slow pace of subscriber numbers was the introduction of SIMs verification through BVS.