During October 2022, the number of cellular users and teledensity decreased in Pakistan for the third consecutive month, according to information provided by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).
In Pakistan, the number of cellular subscribers fell by 0.63 million to 193.51 million by the end of October from 194.14 million by the end of September 2022.
However, according to authorised sources, PTA started the activity of biometrically verifying numerous fingers for stronger SIM authentication and to combat the problem of unauthorised SIM sales at the franchise/reseller level. The use of more stringent biometric verification is most likely the cause of the operators’ decrease in the issuing of unlawful SIM cards and the related decrease in cellular subscribers.
Cellular mobile’s teledensity dropped from 87.98% at the end of September to 87.62% by the end of October 2022. By the end of October, the overall teledensity had dropped from 89.17 percent at the end of September to 88.81 percent.
By the end of October 2022, there were 0.09 million more 3G and 4G customers in Pakistan than there were at the end of September, bringing the total to 120.68 million. By the end of October, the monthly Next Generation Mobile Service (NGMS) penetration had dropped to 54.6 percent from 54.65 percent at the end of September.
Jazz’s overall 3G user count decreased by 0.231 million from 5.456 million at the end of September to 5.225 million at the end of October. By the end of October, there were 40.677 million Jazz 4G users, up from 40.485 million at the end of September.
Zong 4G customers grew from 30.571 million at the end of September to 30.823 million at the end of October 2022, while the number of 3G subscribers fell from 2.933 million at the end of September to 2.855 million by the end of the month.
The number of Telenor 4G users also declined from 22.534 million at the end of September to 22.450 million at the end of October, from 3.260 million at the end of September to 3.158 million.
By the end of October, there were 3.087 million Ufone 3G users, down from 3.219 million at the end of September. Ufone’s 4G user base climbed by 0.27 million from 10.703 million at the end of September to 10.973 million throughout the course of the study period.
