The number of 3G and 4G users in Pakistan reached 48.19 million by end-December 2017, said Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA). The number of mobile phone users in Pakistan reached 144.52 million by end-December 2017 compared to 143.34 million by November 2017, which registered an increase of 1.18 million during the period under review.
Jazz's total count for 3G users stood at 14.299 million by end-December compared to 14.069 million by end-November 2017, registering an increase of 0.23 million. Jazz 4G user numbers jumped from 1,750,866 by end-November to 1,934,752 by end of December 2017. Zong 3G subscribers increased to 9.044 million by end-December 2017 compared to 9.0297 million by end-November, while the number of 4G users jumped from 4,845,504 by end-November to 4,961,350 by end-December.
The number of 3G users of Telenor network increased from 10.59 million by end-November 2017 to10.63 million. Like others the number of 4G users jumped from 1,361,514 by end-November 2017 to 1,594,897 by end-December 2017. Ufone added 0.166 million 3G users on its network during the month of December as the total number reached 5.720 million by end-December against 5.556 million by end-November 2017.
Teledensity for cellular mobile reached 72.72 percent and broadband number of subscribers reached 50,512,909 by end-December as compared to 49,527,254 by end-November 2017. The PTA received 2,828 complaints from telecom consumers against different telecom operators including (cellular operators, PTCL, LDIs, WLL operators and ISPs) as of December 2017. According to PTA data, the PTCL leads the chart with 991 and Jazz (Mobilink + Warid) stands at second position as the most complained telecom operator with 717 complaints. The PTA said that it was able to get 2675 complaints resolved ie 94.5 percent.
Cellular mobile subscribers constitute major part of overall telecom subscriber base; therefore, maximum complaints are with respect to this segment. Total number of complaints against CMOs by December 2017 stood at 1776. In terms of segregation of complaints on operator basis, a total of 717 complaints were received against Jazz which is 40.37% of the total CMO related complaints.
Telenor, which has the second largest number of consumers, was second with 452 ie 25.45 percent complaints were received against it. Zong stood third with 341 complaints ie 19.20 percent of total complaints. Ufone had 266 complaints against its various services which make up 14.97 percent of the total CMO related complaints.