Jazz and Telenor are losing ground in Pakistan’s fiercely competitive cellular sector on the subscriber front, even as Jazz simultaneously topped PTA’s consumer complaint rankings for May 2026, according to two sets of official regulatory data released for the month. Official figures show both Jazz and Telenor losing telecom market share in May, while Zong and Ufone successfully captured new subscribers and expanded their respective footprints. At the same time, PTA’s complaint data reveals that Jazz received more consumer complaints than any other operator, while Ufone posted the weakest resolution performance among all cellular providers despite its gains in overall market share.
On the subscriber front, Jazz declined from 36.50 percent in April to 36.42 percent in May, while Zong increased from 26.58 percent to 26.62 percent, consolidating its position as the country’s second-largest operator. Telenor’s share edged down from 21.33 percent to 21.26 percent, while Ufone improved from 14.54 percent to 14.65 percent. The Special Communications Organisation held steady at 1.05 percent. Despite the slip, Jazz still comfortably maintains its position as Pakistan’s largest mobile operator, controlling more than a third of the entire market.
On the complaints front, PTA received a total of 4,426 complaints across all telecom sectors in May 2026, of which 4,185 were resolved, translating to an overall resolution rate of 94.55 percent. Cellular mobile operators accounted for the bulk of this volume, accumulating 3,729 complaints and resolving 3,549 of them for a 95.17 percent resolution rate. Jazz received the highest number of complaints among cellular operators at 1,494, though it also posted the strongest resolution performance, resolving 1,446 cases for a 96.79 percent rate. Zong followed with 920 complaints and 889 resolved at 96.63 percent, while Telenor recorded 663 complaints with 640 resolved at 96.53 percent. Ufone, despite gaining market share during the same month, recorded the lowest resolution rate among all cellular operators, addressing only 546 of its 619 complaints for a rate of 88.21 percent. Beyond cellular services, internet service providers received 560 complaints with 510 resolved at 91.07 percent, while basic telephony services recorded 114 complaints with 104 resolved at 91.23 percent.
The juxtaposition of the two data sets paints a nuanced picture of Pakistan’s telecom landscape in May 2026: Zong and Ufone are the clear winners on subscriber growth, yet customer service quality tells a different story, with Ufone’s expanding subscriber base evidently outpacing its capacity to resolve customer issues at the same rate as its larger rivals. Jazz, meanwhile, continues to absorb the largest complaint volume that comes with being the market leader, but its high resolution rate suggests the company is managing that scale more effectively than Ufone is managing its growth. As competition intensifies further in the months ahead, the operators that can pair subscriber growth with strong service resolution, rather than excelling at only one, are likely to emerge as the most resilient players in Pakistan’s evolving cellular market.
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