The number of 3G and 4G users in Pakistan reached 66.14 million by end-March 2019, said Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA). Number of mobile phone users in Pakistan reached 159.024 million by end-March compared to 156.92 million by end-February, which registered an increase of 2.104 million during the period under review.
Jazz's total count for 3G users stood at 13.622 million by end-March compared to 13.714 million by end-February, registering a decrease of 0.0092 million. Jazz 4G user numbers jumped from 8.144 million by end-February to 8.774 million by end-March.
Zong 3G subscribers increased from 8.738 million by end-February to 8.764 million by end-March while the number of 4G users jumped from 11.026 million by end-February to 11.600 million by end-March 2019. The number of 3G users of Telenor network decreased from 8.851 million by end-February to 8.764 million by end-March 2019 i.e. registering a decrease of 0.087 million. The number of 4G users jumped from 5.569 million by end-February to 5.905 million by end-March.
Ufone 3G users decreased from 8.162 million by end-February to 7.846 million by end-March registering a decline of 0.316 million. Teledensity for cellular mobile increased from 76.3 percent by end-February to 77.17 percent by end-March and broadband subscribers reached 68,244,373 by end-March compared to 66,704,731 by end-February.
The PTA received 13,685 complaints from telecom consumers against different telecom operators including (cellular operators, PTCL, LDIs, WLL operators and ISPs) as of March 2019.
According to PTA data, Jazz (Mobilink + Warid) leads the chart with 3,881 complaints and Telenor stands at second position as the most complained telecom operator with 2,738 complaints.
The PTA said that it was able to get 13,676 complaints resolved i.e. 99.93 percent. Cellular mobile subscribers constitute major part of overall telecom subscriber base, therefore, maximum number of complaints belong to this segment. Total number of complaints against CMOs by February stood at 10,684.
In terms of the segregation of complaints on operator basis, a total of 3,881 complaints were received against Jazz which is 36.32% of the total CMO related complaints.
Telenor, which has the second largest number of consumers, was also second with 2,738 complaints i.e. 25.62 percent complaints were received against it.
Zong stood third with 2,396 complaints i.e. 22.42 percent of total complaints. Ufone had 1,669 complaints against its various services which make up 15.62 percent of the total CMO related complaints.
The PTA also received 1,286 complaints against basic telephony where 1,281 were addressed during March 2019. Further 1,690 complaints were received against ISPs where 1,686 were addressed.