Zong has officially launched commercial fifth-generation mobile services across more than 16 cities in Pakistan, making it one of the first operators in the country to go live with 5G connectivity following the formal issuance of licences by PTA. The rollout covers a broad sweep of Pakistan’s major urban centres, with services now active in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, and Quetta, among other cities, marking a significant moment in the country’s digital infrastructure journey.
The launch follows Zong’s successful acquisition of a 5G licence as part of Pakistan’s recently concluded spectrum auction, in which 480 megahertz of the total 597 megahertz available was sold across all three major operators. As part of its commercial rollout commitments, Zong has announced plans to deploy and upgrade over 1,000 fifth-generation sites nationwide during 2026, a programme designed to progressively expand high-speed coverage and enhance the quality of digital services available to consumers and businesses across the country. The scale of the planned site deployment reflects the operator’s intention to move beyond the initial urban launch footprint and build a more comprehensive national 5G network over the course of the year.
Zong’s entry into commercial 5G builds on a history of early investment in next-generation connectivity that stretches back to 2019, when the operator conducted Pakistan’s first 5G trial and established the country’s first functional 5G node. Subsequent years saw continued infrastructure investment, artificial intelligence-integrated network management, and pre-commercial testing that recently demonstrated peak download speeds exceeding 1.4 gigabits per second during trials in Islamabad. With licences now formally issued and services commercially live across 16 cities, the operator’s long-running preparation for the fifth-generation era has moved from testing into full deployment, with further expansion of coverage across additional cities and regions anticipated as the rollout continues to scale through the remainder of 2026.
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