ISLAMABAD: The mobile broadband (3G-4G) subscribers in the country have been increasing consistently and it appears from on-going subscription trend that number may cross 25 million mark soon.
During past 5 months, 3G-4G subscribers in the country have been surging by a monthly average of 1.6 million.
The figures revealed by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) till November last year confirmed that there are around 21.65 million 3G-4G subscribers with Mobilink leading the sector by scoring 6.8 million total 3G subscribers followed by Telenor, Zong and Ufone who have so far grabbed 6 million, 4.3 million and 4 million 3G subscribers respectively.
Whereas, Zong tops the 4G subscriptions with 254,122 users followed by Warid with 192,917 subscribers in total.
A graph depicts a very consistent performance by all four 3G mobile operators and it could be a result of aggressive expansion plan and trend is likely to continue in the following months as well. Launch of 3G handsets by operators may also help increase the subscription in upcoming months.
The 4G subscribers trend showed that Warid has remained behind Zong during past 5 months from July – November 2015 which was the case quite opposite in early months of 2015.
The other than mobile broadband, rest of the technologies responsible for broadband penetration in the country seemed to be on a standstill situation in terms of attracting more customers.
The largest ISP PTCL’s latest offers for luring new and old customers could only add 50,000 EVO customers and almost equal number of DSL broadband users in month of November 2015.
Total broadband subscribers in the country reached 24.7 million in November 2015 showing a mere 14% contribution from other non-mobile broadband technologies including DSL, HFC, WiMax, FTTH, EvDO and others.
Meanwhile, statistics revealed that average data consumed by a 3G user per month is 910MBs while 4G consumers use an average data of around 2GB per month.
