Pak Telecommunication Mobile Limited, doing business as Ufone, is a Pakistani
wireless network operator
A mobile network operator (MNO), also known as a mobile network provider, mobile network carrier, mobile , wireless service provider, wireless carrier, wireless operator, wireless telco, or cellular company, is a telecommunications provider of se ...
headquartered in
Islamabad
Islamabad (; , ; ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's tenth-most populous city with a population of over 1.1 million and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital Territory. Bu ...
. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of
Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited
Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd., commonly known as PTCL, is the national telecommunication company in Pakistan.[PTCL
Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd., commonly known as PTCL, is the national telecommunication company in Pakistan.](_blank)[Etisalat by e&
e&, formerly branded as Etisalat, is an Emirati state-owned telecommunications company. It is the 16th largest in the world by subscribers.
On 31 December 2021, Etisalat reported consolidated revenue of United Arab Emirates dirham, AED 53.3 bil ...](_blank)
in 2006.
Ufone is mobile service provider in
Pakistan
Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
with a subscriber base of 26 million as of February 2025, among which 17 million are
4G/LTE subscribers. It has a market share of 13%, the least among all four mobile operators.
History
Pakistan Telecommunication Limited (PTCL) launched Ufone as its own mobile service provider in 2000.
Ufone commenced its operations from Islamabad on January 29, 2001.
Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf (11 August 1943 – 5 February 2023) was a Pakistani general and politician who served as the tenth president of Pakistan from 2001 to 2008.
Prior to his career in politics, he was a four-star general and appointed as ...
, then-
president of Pakistan
The president of Pakistan () is the head of state of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The president is the nominal head of the executive and the supreme commander of the Pakistan Armed Forces. , inaugurated the service on that day. Ufone is also known as Pakistan Telecommunications Mobile Ltd (PTML).
Rashid Khan was appointed acting CEO of Ufone in August 2017.
Following
PTCL
Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd., commonly known as PTCL, is the national telecommunication company in Pakistan.[Etisalat by e&
e&, formerly branded as Etisalat, is an Emirati state-owned telecommunications company. It is the 16th largest in the world by subscribers.
On 31 December 2021, Etisalat reported consolidated revenue of United Arab Emirates dirham, AED 53.3 bil ...](_blank)
in 2006.
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.
In 2019, PTCL and Ufone were merging a number of their departments.
Rashid Khan, president and CEO of both Ufone and PTCL, died in December 2020.
In 2021, it purchased its own 4G spectrum license for US$279 million.
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.
Also in 2021, it was the sponsor of the Ufone 4G Football Cup in Pakistan.
In December 2023, Ufone CEO Hatem Bamatraf announced it had agreed to acquire 100% of
Telenor Pakistan
Telenor Pakistan (Pvt.) Limited is a Pakistani wireless network operator headquartered in Islamabad, Pakistan. Khurrum Ashfaque is the current chief executive officer (CEO).
Telenor started its operations in Pakistan in March 2005. Over the y ...
Ltd.
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
VEON Ltd. (formerly VimpelCom Ltd.), also known as VEON Group, is a multinational telecommunication and digital services company. Headquartered in Dubai, the company is publicly traded on the U.S.-based NASDAQ stock exchange. VEON operates in s ...
-owned
Jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
, which had around 70 million mobile connections.
In March 2024, PTCL held a 100% stake in Ufone. Ufone had 25.28 million subscribers.
Radio frequency summary
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.
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.
4G launch
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.
Voice over LTE (VoLTE)
In October 2023, Ufone announced that it enabled VoLTE across its network, making it the last network in the country to support the service.
See also
*
List of telecommunication companies in Pakistan
See also
* List of dialling codes in Pakistan
* List of mobile codes in Pakistan
* Telephone numbers in Pakistan
References
{{Mobile network operators of Pakistan
Mobile network operators
Telecommunication
Telecommunication, oft ...
References
{{Mobile network operators of Pakistan
Mobile phone companies of Pakistan
Companies based in Islamabad
Telecommunications companies established in 2001
2001 establishments in Pakistan
Pakistani brands
PTCL
Internet service providers of Pakistan