TAHIR AMIN

ISLAMABAD: The number of 3G and 4G users in Pakistan reached 104.71 million by end September 2021 compared to 103.12 million by end August 2021, registering an increase of 1.59 million, revealed the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) data.

The number of cellular subscribers in Pakistan increased by 0.82 million to 186.39 million by end September 2021 compared to 185.57 million by end August 2021.

Teledensity for cellular mobile increased from 84.67 percent by end August to 85.01 percent by end September.

The total teledensity increased from 85.81 percent by end August to 86.15 percent by end September.

The Monthly Next Generation Mobile Service (NGMS) penetration stood at 47.47 percent by end September 2021 compared to 47.05 percent by end August 2021.

Jazz’s total count for 3G users stood at 7.261 million by end September 2021 compared to 7.438 million by end August, registering a decrease of 0.177 million.

Jazz 4G user numbers jumped from 32.767 million by end August to 33.676 million by end September.

Zong 3G subscribers decreased from 4.046 million by end August to 3.956 million by end September, while the number of 4G users jumped from 24.099 million by end August to 24.813 million by end September.

The number of 3G users of Telenor decreased from 4.777 million by end August to 4.575 million.

The number of 4G users jumped from 18.333 million by end August to 18.767 million by end September.

Ufone 3G users decreased from 4.292 million by end August to 4.212 million by end September.

The number of 4G users of Ufone increased from 6.246 million by end Augustto 6.324 million by end September.

The PTA received 16,366 complaints from telecom consumers against various telecom operators, including (cellular operators, the PTCL, LDIs, WLL operators, and ISPs) as of September 2021.

The PTA said that it was able to get 15,873 complaints resolved, i.e. 97 percent.

According to the PTA data, Jazz leads the chart with 6,893 complaints and Telenor at the second position as the most complained telecom operator with 4,077.

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 July stood at 15,244.

In terms of the segregation of complaints on an operator basis, Jazz stood first with 6,893complaints, i.e.45.21 percent of total complaints.

A total of 4,077 complaints were received against Telenor, which is 26.74 percent of the total CMO-related complaints.

Zong was third with 3,066 i.e. 20.11 percent of the total complaints were received against it.