The number of 3G and 4G users in Pakistan reached 109.72 million by end January 2022 compared to 107.68 million by end December 2021, registering an increase of 1.52 million, revealed the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).

The number of cellular subscribers in Pakistan increased by 1.8 million to 190.51 million by end January 2022 compared to 188.71 million by end December 2021.

Teledensity for cellular mobile increased from 85.94 percent by end December 2021 to 86.71 percent by end January. The total teledensity increased from 87.08 percent by end December to 87.85 percent by end January.

The Monthly Next Generation Mobile Service (NGMS) penetration stood at 49.94 percent by end January compared to 49.04 percent by end December.

Jazz’s total count for 3G users stood at 6.712 million by end January compared to 6.809 million by end December, registering a decrease of 0.097 million.

Jazz 4G user numbers jumped from 34.750 million by end December to 35.324 million by end January.

Zong 3G subscribers decreased from 3.650 million by end December to 3.561 million by end January, while the number of 4G users jumped from 26.389 million by end December to 26.953 million by end January.

The number of 3G users of Telenor decreased from 4.090 million by end December to 3.994 million by end January. The number of 4G users jumped from 19.824 million by end December to 20.385 million by end January.

Ufone 3G users stood at 3.877 million by end January compared to 3.871 million by end December. The number of 4G users of Ufone increased from 7.112 million by end December to 7.653 million by end January.

The PTA received 23,219 complaints from telecom consumers against different telecom operators, including (cellular operators, PTCL, LDIs, WLL operators, and ISPs) as of January 2022. The PTA said that it was able to get 22,322 complaints resolved, i.e. 96 percent.

According to the PTA data, 8,253 complaints were received against Jazz, 7,868 against Telenor, 4,527 against Zong, and 1,425 complaints were received against Ufone. The PTA also received 603 complaints against basic telephony, where 595 were addressed during January 2022.

Furthermore, 504 complaints were received against ISPs, where 478 were addressed. Cellular mobile subscribers constitute a major part of the overall telecom subscriber base.

Therefore, the maximum number of complaints belongs to this segment.

The total number of complaints against CMOs by January stood at 22,086.

This story was first published in Business Recorder on March 3, 2022.