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Ufone
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] HistoryPakistan 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
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 launchOn 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)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 alsoReferences
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