Ufone has officially announced a major update to its pricing structure, revising tariffs for two of its major standard prepaid offers, with the new rates taking effect later this week on September 26. The telecom operator will increase the price of its SC Lite package to Rs1,700, while the popular Weekly Mega Offer will now cost Rs730, with the company having already notified customers regarding these revised tariffs and upcoming package details. Under the revised structure, SC Lite offers 10GB of data, 2,000 Ufone, PTCL, and Telenor minutes, 200 other-network minutes, and 2,000 SMS, while the Weekly Mega Offer includes 100GB of data plus 50GB of social data, 10,000 on-network minutes, 1,500 other-network minutes, and 10,000 SMS.
In sharp contrast to these standard tariff increases, Ufone is bringing relief to beneficiaries of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) through heavily subsidized package prices exclusive to that group. These special monthly and quarterly offers start from as low as Rs50, meaning individuals enrolled under the social protection programme will retain access to substantially lower-cost telecom services even as regular prepaid users face higher costs. The BISP Mahana Call Offer, priced at Rs50 with 30-day validity, includes 500 on-network minutes with no data or off-network minutes, while the BISP Mahana Call Plus, at Rs100, adds 10GB of data and increases on-network minutes to 1,000. The BISP Quarterly Offer, priced at Rs300 with 30-day validity, offers 30GB of data, 3,000 on-network minutes, and 150 off-network minutes.
Ufone’s pricing strategy highlights a sharp difference between standard prepaid tariffs and subsidized plans, allowing the company to manage rising operating expenses while actively protecting vulnerable groups through the BISP initiative. This dual approach mirrors broader patterns across Pakistan’s telecom sector, where operators continue to adjust overall pricing structures in response to rising operating costs and growing consumer demand for mobile data and digital connectivity, while simultaneously facing pressure to maintain accessibility for lower-income segments of the population. Ufone’s subsidized BISP offerings extend the operator’s existing pattern of targeted social packages, giving one of the country’s largest social protection programmes’ beneficiaries a dedicated telecom pricing tier distinct from the general consumer market.
The timing of Ufone’s price revisions comes amid broader scrutiny of telecom pricing practices in Pakistan, with the Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication separately examining allegations that Jazz overcharged mobile users by Rs6.58 billion, and PTA having recently fined Telenor Rs68.055 million over Quality of Service violations. Against this backdrop of heightened regulatory attention on telecom pricing and service quality, Ufone’s decision to publicly frame its tariff increases alongside expanded BISP subsidies may serve to position the operator’s pricing changes as balanced rather than purely extractive. Whether other operators follow with similar targeted subsidy programmes for BISP beneficiaries, or whether Ufone’s approach becomes a template for balancing rising costs against social protection considerations, will likely become clearer as Pakistan’s telecom sector continues navigating the tension between operating cost pressures and affordability concerns for lower-income users.
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