Ufone has marked the best overall Network Performance Score (NPS), exceeding 600 points in total with a comfortable advantage of 93 and 131 points to Zong and Jazz in the PTA [Pakistan Telecommunication Authority] Mobile Networks Benchmark Reports of2022.
Ufone has secured the highest score in the overall benchmarking campaign, whereas Zong has obtained the second position, followed by Jazz and Telenor. The overall NPS scores of Ufone, Zong, Jazz and Telenor are 634, 541, 503, and 384 points, respectively.
PTA conducted its second nationwide NPS benchmarking campaign from January 11 to February 2, 2022 in different cities, towns, and motorways/highways throughout Pakistan to assess the quality and performance of mobile networks in line with the latest NPS methodology.
A total of five cities, four towns, and four motorways/highways were surveyed. More than 15,000 voice calls were made and 45,000 data tests were performed. The Quality of Service (QoS) test covered an area including cities, towns, and roads in federal and provincial capitals of approximately 4,522 kilometers in length.
NPS is a harmonized and integrative scoring methodology standardized by European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) that characterizes the overall network performance based on automated tests with commercial smartphones simulating the typical end-user behavior (voice call, browsing, etc.) in a public network.
NPS enables telecom regulators to compare and assess the quality of all mobile networks based on international standard KPIs. NPS is now part of Cellular Mobile Network QoS Regulations 2021 issued by PTA.
Voice Service
All Cellular Mobile Operators (CMOs) have shown overall good results for Voice Services, as the companies achieved 64-80 percent NPS points, with Ufone in the leading position. Ufone and Zong have shown the best Voice Success Ratio. Ufone has the best Call Setup Time while Zong has the best Voice Quality/Mean Opinion Score (MOS). Jazz is also good in Call Drop Ratio. The high share of usage of GSM Network is visible on Jazz network even in Cities. There is great room for Jazz and Telenor to improve Call Setup Success Ratio.
| Operator | Ranking | ||||
| Road | Town | City | Overall | ||
| Zong | 48 | 81 | 187 | 316 | 2nd |
| Telenor | 25 | 75 | 156 | 256 | 4th |
| Jazz | 31 | 75 | 174 | 280 | 3rd |
| Ufone | 39 | 85 | 199 | 323 | 1st |
Data Service
All CMOs have shown poor performance in Data Services, as the companies have not achieved more than 21- 52 percent NPS points in this sphere. Ufone has achieved the best Overall Success Ratio. In HTTP DL/UL Throughput, there is great room for improvement for each operator. Video Quality and Setup Time are on a very good level, but Web Browsing Duration has also shown room for improvement for each operator.
| Operator | Ranking | ||||
| Road | Town | City | Overall | ||
| Zong | 31 | 67 | 127 | 225 | 2nd |
| Telenor | 13 | 33 | 81 | 128 | 4th |
| Jazz | 17 | 57 | 149 | 223 | 3rd |
| Ufone | 10 | 78 | 222 | 310 | 1st |
Jazz and Zong are using LTE Carrier Aggregation with up to 30MHz bandwidth, while Ufone is using only 1xLTE carrier with mainly 15MHz bandwidth in cities and 10MHz in towns. Telenor uses LTE Carrier Aggregation, but with maximal bandwidth of 15MHz.
Highest Scorer
Ufone has secured the highest score in the overall benchmarking campaign, whereas Zong is in second place followed by Jazz and Telenor. The overall NPS scores of Ufone, Zong, Jazz, and Telenor are 634, 541, 503 and 384 points respectively.
Overall Results
Ufone has the best overall Network Performance Score exceeding 600 points in total and having a comfortable advantage of 93 and 131 points to Zong and Jazz positioned at the 2nd and 3rd place respectively. Telenor is at 4th with the lowest score
| Operator | Overall Score | Ranking |
| Ufone | 634 | 1st |
| Zong | 541 | 2nd |
| Jazz | 503 | 3rd |
| Telenor | 384 | 4th |
Voice Service
Best Voice Service is offered by Ufone, followed by Zong, Jazz, and Telenor. The overall voice performance is on a good level for the two leading operators achieving more than 315+ points out of 400 maximum points.
| Operator | Score | Ranking |
| Ufone | 323 | 1st |
| Zong | 316 | 2nd |
| Jazz | 280 | 3rd |
| Telenor | 256 | 4th |
Data Service
Ufone also offers the best Data Service in this campaign with a significant margin over other CMOs. However, the overall data performance is fair for Ufone and quite poor for the others.
| Operator | Score | Ranking |
| Ufone | 310 | 1st |
| Zong | 225 | 2nd |
| Jazz | 223 | 3rd |
| Telenor | 128 | 4th |
Based on this, PTA has gained valuable insights into the performance of each mobile network operator. By making this survey public, PTA is spurring competition among the operators to improve their existing infrastructure with the aim to increase country-wide mobile network quality. Bringing Pakistan’s LTE networks at par with the internationally adopted standards will lay the foundation for a future roll-out of 5G technology on a sound footing.
PTA conducts nationwide mobile QoS Surveys on a periodic basis in order to assess the network performance of all CMOs with respect to licensed KPIs for voice, data, and SMS services. The results are available on PTA’s website for awareness of subscribers and for the concerned operator(s) to take required actions to improve services wherever required.