ISLAMABAD: The number of 3G and 4G users in Pakistan reached 113.11 million by end-March 2022 compared to 111.38 million by end-February 2022, registering an increase of 1.73 million, revealed the Pakistan Telecommuni-cation Authority (PTA).

The number of cellular subscribers in Pakistan increased by 1.79 million to 193.42 million by end-March 2022 compared to 191.63 million by end-February 2022. Teledensity for cellular mobile increased from 87.17 percent by end-February 2022 to 87.95 percent by end-March. The total teledensity increased from 88.31 percent by end-February 2022 to 89.09 percent by end-March.

The Monthly Next Generation Mobile Service (NGMS) penetration stood at 52.79 percent by end-March 2022 compared to 52.02 percent by end-February 2022.

Jazz’s total count for 3G users stood at 6.489 million by end-March compared to 6.607 million by end-February 2022, registering a decrease of 0.118 million. Jazz 4G users jumped from 35.822 million by end-February to 36.518 million by end-March.

Zong 3G subscribers decreased from 3.501 million by end-February to 3.447 million by end March, while the number of 4G users jumped from 27.483 million by end-February to 28.033 million by end-March. The number of 3G users of Telenor are reflected as 3.911 million by end-March which were the same as end-February however there is decline on the graph. The number of 4G users of Telenor jumped from 20.801 million by end-February to 21 million by end-March 2022.

Ufone 3G users stood at 3.809 million by end-March compared to 3.873 million by end-February. The number of 4G users of Ufone increased from 8.099 million by end-February to 8.6 million by end-March 2022, registering 0.501 million increase during the period under review.

The PTA received 19067 complaints from telecom consumers against different telecom operators, including (cellular operators, PTCL, LDIs, WLL operators, and ISPs) as of March 2022. The PTA said that it was able to get 18948 complaints resolved, i.e. 99 percent.

According to the PTA data, 7948 complaints were received against Jazz, 5096 against Telenor, 3553 against Zong and 1639 complaints were received against Ufone. The PTA also received 216 complaints against basic telephony, where 205 were addressed during March 2022. Furthermore, 582 complaints were received against ISPs, where 571 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 March stood at 18,247 where 18,162 were addressed i.e. 99 percent.—TAHIR AMIN