The number of 3G and 4G users in Pakistan reached 38.269 million by end-January 2017 against 37.574 million by December 2016, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) report revealed on Thursday. The number of mobile phone users in Pakistan reached 137.095 million by end of January 2017 from 136.489 million by end of December, which registered an increase of around 0.606 million during the period under review.

According to the PTA report, the number of 3G users of Jazz reached 51.534 million by end-January 2017 after the merger of Mobilink and Warid. Mobilink had a subscriber base of 41.253 million by end-December 2016 while Warid had 10.27 million. Zong and Telenor subscribers reached 27.496 million and 39.586 million by end-January 2017 as compared to 26.929 million and 39.453 million by end of December respectively. Ufone subscribers continue to decline for the last few months as by end-January subscribers decreased to 18.478 million from 18.581 by end-December 2016.

As per PTA report, Jazz 4G subscribers reached 700,486 by end-January 2017. Warid LTE had a subscriber's base of 637,363 by end-December 2016. The number of 4G (Zong) users jumped from 2,274,157 subscribers during December 2016 to 2,855,336 subscribers by end of January 2017. Teledensity for cellular mobile reached 70 per cent and broadband subscribers reached 40,786,778 by end-January as compared to 40,147,991 by end-December 2016.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2017