Ufone
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryTelecommunication
GenreSubsidiary
Founded29 January 2001; 23 years ago (2001-01-29)
FounderPakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd
HeadquartersUfone Tower, Blue Area,
Islamabad
,
Pakistan
Area served
2,336 Cities
All National Highways
All Motorways
Key people
Hatem Bamatraf GCEO & President
ProductsPre Pay, Post Pay, UPaisa[1]
OwnerPakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd, Etisalat
ParentPakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd
Websitehttps://www.ufone.com/

Pak Telecommunication Mobile Limited or Ufone is a Pakistani GSM cellular service provider. It is the third mobile operator to enter Pakistani market. It started its operations under the brand Ufone, in Islamabad on January 29, 2001.

PTML is a wholly owned subsidiary of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited. Following PTCL's privatization, Ufone became a part of the Etisalat in 2006.

Ufone is the smallest mobile service provider in Pakistan with a subscriber base of 25 million.[2] It has a market share of 13%, the least among all four mobile operators.[3]

Ufone had appointed Rashid Khan as its CEO who had been the CEO of Jazz from 2008 to 2014. He was appointed as acting CEO again in August 2017.[4] Rashid Khan died on 17 December 2020.[5]

History

The company commenced its operations, under the brand name of Ufone, from Islamabad on January 29, 2001. Gen. Pervez Musharraf, President of Pakistan had inaugurated the service on that day.

Ufone became a part of the Emirates Telecommunication Corporation Group (Etisalat) in 2006.

Radio Frequency Summary

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 4G 3 4G 15 MHz
2100 MHz UMTS/HSDPA/HSPA+ 1 3G 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 and lack of bandwidth to keep up, in December 2016, Ufone decided to re-farm a portion of its 900 MHz 2G network to 3G (HSPA+), and is now offering 3G over two frequencies to deal with the increasing load on the network. Ufone has only re-farmed their 900 MHz spectrum in Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi/Islamabad, Abbottabad, Sheikhupura and Sialkot.[6][7]

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.[8]

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 has now expanded its 4G coverage to Lahore, Karachi, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Peshawar, Quetta, Attock, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Digri, Jhuddo, Naukot, Mithi, Pabbi, Multan and Nowshehra with planning to launch 4G in more cities soon.[9]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Ufone Call Packages - Hourly, Daily, Weekly & Monthly Packages". Archived from the original on 2017-07-30. Retrieved 2017-07-30.
  2. ^ "Telecom Indicators | PTA". www.pta.gov.pk. Retrieved 2020-01-01.
  3. ^ "Telecommunications: Zong overtakes Ufone as CMOs' market share changes". The Express Tribune. 3 May 2014.
  4. ^ "Ufone appoints Rashid Khan as acting CEO". Ufone. 2017-08-13. Retrieved 2021-08-24.
  5. ^ Reporter, The Newspaper's Staff (2020-12-18). "PTCL, Ufone CEO passes away". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 2021-05-06.
  6. ^ "Ufone Upgrades and Doubles its 3G Network Through Spectrum Refarming". 2017-01-25. Retrieved 2017-10-19.
  7. ^ "Ufone Upgrades its 3G Network in Karachi". 2017-03-30. Retrieved 2017-10-19.
  8. ^ "Press Release". Pakistan Telecommunication Authority. 10 September 2021. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  9. ^ Attaa, Aamir. "Ufone is Going 4G in Pakistan". Retrieved 2019-02-09.
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