PTA has formally approved the long anticipated amalgamation of Telenor Pakistan into Pak Telecom Mobile Limited, widely known as Ufone, in a decision that comes loaded with an extensive set of conditions designed to protect consumers, maintain fair competition, and ensure uninterrupted service quality across the country. The approval, which addresses an application submitted on January 22, 2026, makes the issuance of a No Objection Certificate conditional upon both parties formally accepting all imposed terms within 15 days. Once the legal amalgamation is completed, Telenor Pakistan will cease to exist as a separate entity, with all its licences absorbed by PTML, which becomes the surviving corporate entity. The merger follows the acquisition of Telenor Pakistan by Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited in late 2025, which effectively brought both operators under a single corporate umbrella before the formal regulatory approval was sought.
The scale of the combined entity, referred to throughout the PTA order as MergeCo, is significant by any measure. The merged operator will control approximately 31.7 percent of market revenue and 35.7 percent of subscribers in a market that currently has four major cellular operators, making it the largest player in Pakistan’s mobile sector by subscriber share. PTA explicitly acknowledged that this level of consolidation carries the risk of increased market concentration and potential anti-competitive behaviour, and has responded by imposing strict requirements on interconnection, infrastructure sharing, and network access. MergeCo must provide non-discriminatory access to its network and infrastructure to all telecom operators and cannot favour its affiliates, while all interconnection agreements will require regulatory approval before taking effect. On pricing, PTML will not be permitted to introduce or revise retail or wholesale tariffs without prior PTA approval, and predatory pricing and cross-subsidisation practices have been explicitly prohibited.
Consumer protection measures form a central pillar of PTA’s conditions. Customers will be entitled to continue using their existing packages for at least three months after the merger is finalised, and no subscription packages may be automatically renewed without explicit user consent. A free balance save service must be introduced within 60 days, and all value-added services must carry clear visibility and remain easily deactivatable, addressing a complaint that has persisted for years across Pakistan’s mobile market. Franchise and retailer agreements must remain unchanged for at least six months post merger, and the public must be notified of the merger through nationwide advertisements in both Urdu and English. On the network side, PTML must submit a detailed Network Integration and Project Implementation Plan within 60 days, and any dismantling of network sites is prohibited if it would reduce pre-merger service levels, with decommissioned sites required to be retained for at least three months and made available for acquisition by other operators. PTA has also set progressive mobile internet speed targets for the merged entity, requiring median download speeds to reach 20 megabits per second within two years, 35 megabits per second within four years, and 50 megabits per second within nine years. Following the merger, the combined entity will hold over 56 megahertz of spectrum across multiple frequency bands, though PTA has reserved the right to require reconfiguration or return of underutilised spectrum resources.
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