Remember the time when there was no 3G or 4G in Pakistan? Back in 2013, I went to a Google event and one of the main discussion point at that event was the lack of 3G and 4G in Pakistan. Most of the countries at that time had at least 3G and Pakistan was one of the very few countries to does not have these facilities. But then, Pakistan introduced 3G and 4G just after a year and the number of 3G/4G users is increasing rapidly since then.
According to the latest statistics from PTA, Pakistan now has more than 46 million 3G and 4G subscribers. And the number of broadband users are even higher with around 48 million subscribers. The statistics also show that there are 141 million total mobile phone subscribers in Pakistan and it is to be noted that total population of Pakistan is around 200 million.
When we further break it down, Jazz has 13.64 million 3G users, Zong has 8.9 million, Ufone has 5.4 million and Telenor has 10.7 million 3G users. And when we talk about 4G users, Telenor has 0.9 million 4G users, Jazz has 1.3 million and Zong has 4.6 million 4G users.
The statistics show that how Ufone is falling behind all other networks in term of internet users and why wouldn’t it as it is the only network with no 4G capability and users switch from a non-4G network to a 4G network even if they do not use 4G regularly. Zong, on the other hand, has the highest number of 4G users and the reason behind it is the quality provided by Zong. I, myself, really love Zong 4G and there is literally no other 4G network like it in Pakistan. However, Jazz is improving at a great pace.
Jazz, on the other hand, has the highest number of 3G users and you may be wondering that even now Jazz offers 4G, why its 4G users are not as much as its 3G users? Well, the reason behind that could be that some people still own phones which does not support 4G connectivity, so they are bound to use 3G on their handset and the other reason could be the people like me, who do have a 4G phone but does not have the time to get their sim replaced as to use 4G, you must have a 4G enabled SIM card.
Pakistan is a leapfrogging country. It a term used when something comes from the bottom and then reach to the significant high position. Pakistan did not have 3G before 2014 and as mentioned, most of the countries had it at that time. But when Pakistan got the 3G and 4G, it grew quickly to become one of the top countries with the most number of 3G/4G subscribers.
