PTA survey finds service quality gaps across all mobile operators

ISLAMABAD: Cellular Mobile Operators (CMOs) only partially complied with the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority’s (PTA) Quality of Service (QoS) standards during the first quarter of 2026, with none achieving full compliance across all key performance indicators (KPIs), according to an independent survey conducted by the regulator.

The survey, conducted across 18 cities between January and March 2026, evaluated Jazz, Ufone, Telenor and Zong against 216 KPIs covering mobile network coverage, broadband performance, voice quality and SMS services under the Cellular Mobile Network QoS Regulations 2021. PTA conducted approximately 43,222 voice call and SMS tests alongside a large number of mobile data measurements during the 75-day exercise.

The results show that while all operators met a majority of the regulatory benchmarks, none achieved 100 percent compliance, indicating that service quality gaps persist despite continued network expansion.

During the survey, while conducting data test in technology auto detect mode, 4G/LTE signal strength samples were recorded on survey routes. However, all operators met this KPI.

Latency, while not a traditional KPI (non-service KPI), is a vital metric for Mobile Broadband Performance, as it directly affects user experience. During the survey, Network Latency was measured by calculating the ping between different websites and 3 rd Party Test servers. However operators partially met this KPI.

Jazz emerged as the best-performing operator, complying with 205 out of 216 KPIs, or 95 percent. Zong followed with 200 compliant KPIs (93 percent), Ufone met 193 KPIs (89 percent), while Telenor recorded the weakest performance, complying with only 169 KPIs, or 78 percent.

PTA’s overall standings placed Jazz first in SMS services and download throughput, while Zong topped voice services, mobile network coverage and upload throughput. Ufone secured third place in most service categories, whereas Telenor consistently ranked fourth in mobile broadband performance and third in voice and SMS services.

City-wise results revealed that Jazz ranked first in most surveyed locations, including Rawalpindi, Karachi West, Hyderabad, Swabi and several others. Zong led in cities such as Loralai, Malakwal, Sialkot and Zhob, while Ufone secured the top position only in Islamabad. Telenor failed to rank first in any of the 18 surveyed cities.

The regulator found that Jazz dominated download speeds, securing first position in 13 cities under auto-mode testing and 11 cities in third-party application testing. Zong, however, delivered the best upload performance, ranking first in 12 cities in auto-mode testing and 11 cities in third-party application measurements.

Voice quality results favoured Zong, which recorded compliance in 88 out of 90 voice quality indicators, ahead of Jazz, Telenor and Ufone. For SMS performance, Jazz achieved the highest compliance, followed by Zong, Ufone and Telenor.

PTA also noted that Telenor’s data performance in five cities—Swabi, Rawalpindi, Hub, Hyderabad and Pir Mahal—could not be assessed because its testing equipment lacked mandatory measurement capabilities required under the regulator’s methodology.

Consequently, data results from those locations were excluded from the evaluation.
The regulator said the quarterly survey is intended to ensure compliance with internationally aligned QoS standards and identify service deficiencies requiring corrective action.

The findings suggest that while operators generally meet most regulatory benchmarks, further improvements are needed before Pakistan’s mobile networks achieve full compliance with PTA’s service quality standards.

Further the latest Customer Service Performance Survey for the fourth quarter of 2025 has revealed widespread shortcomings in telecom operators’ customer service, with none of the mobile operators meeting the benchmark for complaint response times.

The survey, conducted under the Telecom Consumer Protection (Amendment) Regulations, 2017, assessed key performance indicators (KPIs) including call centre performance, complaint handling, billing accuracy, service activation/deactivation, reconnection time and emergency service accessibility.

According to the report, all operators failed to achieve the prescribed customer complaint turnaround time, while only Ufone met the benchmark for operator assistance response and queue time. Jazz was the only operator that satisfied the overall problem resolution success rate, whereas Telenor, Zong, Ufone and SCOM fell short of the required standards.

The PTA also found deficiencies in emergency helpline accessibility, with several emergency numbers either unavailable or incorrectly mapped on different networks in various cities, including Quetta, Peshawar, Multan, Faisalabad and Gilgit-Baltistan.

Despite these shortcomings, all operators successfully met the benchmarks for new service activation and service deactivation, while Jazz and Zong achieved a 100 percent reconnection success rate within the prescribed 15-minute threshold.

The PTA concluded that the survey reflected a mixed trend of compliance and non-compliance and said the findings would be shared with telecom operators for corrective measures and service improvements.