Mobile Broadband Connections Reached 15.8 Million in Pakistan

The number of mobile broadband users in the country increased by 8% to 15.7 million in August compared to 14.6 million of the previous month as the five telecom operators added more than 1 million new connections to their third-generation (3G) and 4G networks. The cellular mobile operators user base reduced by 18% to 114.7 million subscribers in fiscal year 2015 because of the bio-metric verification.

Mobile Broadband Connections Reached 15.8 Million in Pakistan

After a minor recovery to 116.4 million in July, the cellular industry’s total user base increased by 2.5 million to finish just under 119 million at the end of August, the annual cellular teledensity stood at 62.5%.

In the mobile broadband category, Telenor Pakistan remained persistent in controlling the sales, adding more than 395,000 users to its 3G network during August, continuing its lead in the category with over 5 million 3G users.

Zong wasn’t left far behind, as it added more than 350,000 3G and 4G users. During the review period Zong made mobile broadband user base above 3.5 million subscriptions.

Mobilink, which holds the second highest number of 3G users, was capable of adding over 74,000 users to its mobile broadband network and had 4 million 3G subscribers at the end of August. Warid Telecom sold more than 18,000 long term evolution (LTE) or 4G connections throughout the month and made almost 140,000 broadband subscriptions.

However the market positions of the five telecom operators, stayed the same on overall basis. Mobilink remained at the top with 34.6 million subscriptions (both 3G and 2.5G) at the end of August followed by Telenor Pakistan, which placed second with 32.7 million users. Zong, Ufone and Warid stood third, fourth and fifth with 23.1 million, 18.3 million and 10.2 million users, respectively.