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Ufone

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Ufone
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryTelecommunication
Founded29 January 2001; 23 years ago (2001-01-29)
HeadquartersUfone Tower, Blue Area,
Islamabad
Key people
Hatem Bamatraf GCEO & President
ProductsONIC, UPaisa
RevenueIncrease Rs. 60.074 billion (US$210 million) (2022)
Total assetsIncrease Rs. 211.208 billion (US$730 million) (2022)
Total equityDecrease Rs. 6.452 billion (US$22 million) (2022)
ParentPakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd
Websiteufone.com
Footnotes / references
Financials as of 31 December 2022 [1]

Pak Telecommunication Mobile Limited, doing business as Ufone, is a Pakistani wireless network operator headquartered in Islamabad. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited. Following PTCL's privatization, Ufone became a part of Etisalat by e& in 2006.

Ufone is mobile service provider in Pakistan with a subscriber base of 26 million as of August 2024, among which 16 million are 4G/LTE subscribers. It has a market share of 13%, the least among all four mobile operators.[2]

History

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Pakistan Telecommunication Limited (PTCL) launched Ufone as its own mobile service provider in 2000.[3] Ufone commenced its operations from Islamabad on January 29, 2001. Pervez Musharraf, then-president of Pakistan, inaugurated the service on that day.[citation needed] Ufone is also known as Pakistan Telecommunications Mobile Ltd (PTML).[4] Rashid Khan was appointed acting CEO of Ufone in August 2017.[5] Following PTCL's privatization, Ufone became a part of Etisalat by e& in 2006.[citation needed]

In 2017, Ufone was the only company in the Pakistani telecommunications market that did not have 4G data services. It launched 4G in August 2019.[3] In 2019, PTCL and Ufone were merging a number of their departments.[6] Rashid Khan, president and CEO of both Ufone and PTCL, died in December 2020.[7]

In 2021, it purchased its own 4G spectrum license for US$279 million.[3] In July 2021, Ufone had around 23 million cellular subscriptions, and had a market share of 12%. It had 10.6 million broadband subscriptions, or 10% of market share in Pakistan.[8] Also in 2021, it was the sponsor of the Ufone 4G Football Cup in Pakistan.[9][10]

In December 2023, Ufone CEO Hatem Bamatraf announced it had agreed to acquire 100% of Telenor Pakistan Ltd.[11] Specifically, Ufone's owner PTCL agreed to acquire Telenor in Pakistan for $500 million. In May 2024, Pakistan's antitrust authority warned against PTCL's proposed takeover of Telenor's business in Pakistan, which would have brought Ufone and Telenor under the same ownership. The authority noted that the combination of Ufone and Telenor would have created a company with more market share than VEON-owned Jazz, which had around 70 million mobile connections.[12] In March 2024, PTCL held a 100% stake in Ufone. Ufone had 25.28 million subscribers.[13]

Radio frequency summary

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Frequency Protocol Band Class Channel Width
900 MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE 8 2G 2.6 MHz / 7.6 MHz
900 MHz UMTS/HSDPA/HSPA+ 8 3G 5 MHz
1800 MHz LTE/LTE-A 3 4G 15 MHz
2100 MHz LTE/LTE-A 1 4G 5 MHz

Ufone had bid on a 5 MHz block of 2100 MHz spectrum in the NGMS auction held in early 2014, however due to rising demand, in December 2016, Ufone decided to re-farm a portion of its 900 MHz 2G network to 3G (HSPA+) to increase network capacity.

Ufone has re-farmed their 900 MHz spectrum in Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi/Islamabad, Abbottabad, Sheikhupura and Sialkot.[14][15]

PTML Ufone won 2x9 MHz of 1800 MHz in the 2021 NGMS auction held by PTA, bringing its total spectrum in the band up to 15 MHz which will be used for improvement of its existing 4G services.[16]

4G launch

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On 9 February 2019, Ufone launched its 4G network in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. It has done so using existing NGMS licenses. Ufone by 2019 had expanded its 4G coverage to Lahore, Karachi, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Peshawar, Quetta, Attock, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Digri, Jhuddo, Naukot, Mithi, Pabbi, Multan and Nowshehra, and had outlined plans to launch 4G in other cities as well.[17]

Voice over LTE (VoLTE)

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In October 2023, Ufone announced that it enabled VoLTE across its network, making it the last network in the country to support the service.[18]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Ufone Annual Report 2022" (PDF). Retrieved 14 September 2024.
  2. ^ "Telecom Indicators | PTA". www.pta.gov.pk. Retrieved 2024-07-26.
  3. ^ a b c Ahmad, Ahtasam (May 17, 2023), "PTCL Suffering Losses Due To Ufone's Abysmal Performance", The Friday Times, retrieved September 14, 2024
  4. ^ Tirmizi, Farooq (September 26, 2020), "PTCL wants to sell Ufone. Here's why that's a good idea", Pakistan Today, retrieved September 15, 2024
  5. ^ "Ufone appoints Rashid Khan as acting CEO", Pakistan Today, August 13, 2017, retrieved September 15, 2024
  6. ^ "Govt may merge Ufone completely with PTCL", Pakistan Today, November 22, 2019, retrieved September 15, 2024
  7. ^ Ahmed, Ali (December 17, 2020), "President, CEO PTCL & Ufone Rashid Khan passes away", Business Recorder, retrieved September 14, 2024
  8. ^ "Ufone's moment?", Business Recorder, September 17, 2021, retrieved September 15, 2024
  9. ^ "Ufone 4G Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Football Cup enters sensational Super 8 round", Pakistan Today, December 1, 2021, retrieved September 15, 2024
  10. ^ "Mardan, Chitral make it to Final of Ufone 4G Football Cup", Pakistan Today, December 11, 2021, retrieved September 15, 2024
  11. ^ "PTCL, Ufone CEO announces 100 percent stake acquisition in Telenor Pakistan", The Nation, December 15, 2023, retrieved September 14, 2024
  12. ^ Majithia, Kavit (May 7, 2024), "Pakistan regulator flags PTCL, Telenor deal concerns", MobileWorldLive, retrieved September 15, 2024
  13. ^ Bhutta, Zafar (March 23, 2024), "CCP finishes Telenor merger review", The Express Tribune, retrieved September 14, 2024
  14. ^ "Ufone Upgrades and Doubles its 3G Network Through Spectrum Refarming". 2017-01-25. Retrieved 2017-10-19.
  15. ^ "Ufone Upgrades its 3G Network in Karachi". 2017-03-30. Retrieved 2017-10-19.
  16. ^ "Press Release". Pakistan Telecommunication Authority. 10 September 2021. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  17. ^ Attaa, Aamir. "Ufone is Going 4G in Pakistan". Retrieved 2019-02-09.
  18. ^ "Ufone 4G Introduces VoLTE for HD Voice & Video Calling Experience Over 4G Network". ProPakistani. 2023-10-19. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
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