Zong tops 5 million 3G subscriber base in Pak

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has updated the telecom indicators of Pakistan which specifies that total 3G and 4G subscribers in the country have reached around 4.96 million, and shortly going to achieve a landmark of 5 million subscribers by the end of 2014. An impressive improvement is seen in the number of 3G and 4G subscribers just after the auction, however it does not include the 4G subscribers of Warid, since the company has launched its 4G services a few days ago. Currently, Zong is topping the list with highest number of 3G subscribers around 1.68 million and Mobilink ranks second with 1.44 million 3G subscribers.3G subscribers However, soon after the availability of 3G services, Mobilink was successful in securing highest number of subscribers 0.425 million in July, when Zong had 0. 417 million 3G subscribers but Zong has taken the lead by the end of November 2014. Telenor had very disappointing 3G subscribers in July 2014 which were only 895, but today the company has successfully scored 1.18 million subscribers and comes at the third position.3G-subscribers According to this latest statistics by PTA, Ufone failed to grab any 3G subscriber from July to September 2014, however it at once got 0.539 million subscribers in October and now it has around 0.646 million 3G subscribers, scoring the last position. Unlike 3G, 4G is unsuccessful in attracting good number of subscribers may be due to the fact that only two, out of five operators are providing 4G services and among them, Warid is a new player but Zong which has started its 4G previously has only 1,452 4G subscribers. Since 3G and 4G services are new in Pakistan so we cannot expect to achieve more number of 4G subscribers over nights as 4G coverage is still in very limited areas of 3 major cities of Pakistan and additionally, 4G enabled handsets are expensive and very few in numbers. Owing to this, Zong has introduced its own 4G handsets in the market just recently with affordable price tag and is planning to introduce some more in the coming days to promote its 4G services. Nonetheless Warid seems quite motivated to promote its 4G LTE and the competition will soon result in increasing number of 4G subscribers which will eventually push other operators to launch 4G services. Similarly, the future of 3G seems brighter in Pakistan and looking at the attraction of people towards 3G services, cellular operators are making good efforts to penetrate the services into more and more cities.