Zong 4G, one of the four cellular companies operating in Pakistan, appears to have dominated the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority’s QoS Surveys for the first quarter of 2021.
The company showed high levels of industry compliance on all key fronts including network coverage, mobile broadband (4G), voice, and SMS services in major cities, towns, as well as roads and highways.
The survey measures mobile network coverage, mobile broadband (3G/4G/LTE) signal strength, mobile broadband service (3G/4G user data throughput), voice services (network accessibility, service accessibility, call connection time, call completion ratio, end-to-end speech quality, & more), and SMS service (SMS success rate, end-to-end delivery time).
QoS Survey in Cities
PTA conducted independent surveys across thirteen different cities of Punjab, Sindh, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) to measure the performance and service quality of Pakistani Cellular Mobile Operators (CMOs).
As the table shows, Zong dominated all major service areas, complying with key quality benchmarks. In mobile network coverage, Zong secured first place followed by Jazz and Telenor in second place and Ufone in third. While 3G coverage was dominated by Ufone, Telenor, and Jazz in the respective order, Zong topped the list in 4G services followed by Jazz, Telenor, and Ufone.
Similarly, in the voice segment too, Zong secured the number 1 position followed by Ufone, Jazz, and Telenor in respective order. On the SMS front, Zong took the lead with Jazz, Ufone, and Telenor securing the second, third, and fourth places respectively.
QoS Survey on Roads
In order to measure the performance and service quality of Cellular Mobile Operators (CMOs), an independent Quality of Service (QoS) Survey was carried out on sixteen different motorways/highways/inter-city roads of Punjab, Sindh, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK).
As shown in the table above, Zong secured first position in all four service areas on Pakistani roads. Mobile network coverage on roads was dominated by Zong with Jazz, Telenor, and Ufone following in respective order. Mobile broadband coverage and service were also ruled by Zong followed by Jazz, Telenor, and Ufone.
Similarly, Zong secured first place in voice and SMS segments too followed by Telenor, Zong, and Jazz on both fronts.
QoS Survey in Towns
To ensure that the residents of smaller towns in Pakistan also get access to the same mobile services as enjoyed by those in bugger cities, PTA conducted independent quality of service surveys in eight different towns of Punjab, Sindh, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK).
Zong, as well as Jazz and Telenor, were found to have complied with key quality benchmarks and thus shared the first position. In the surveyed towns, Zong topped the charts for 4G coverage and service followed by Jazz, Ufone, and Telenor while the 3G domain was dominated by Ufone, followed by Jazz, Telenor, and Zong.
In the voice segment for towns, Zong secured the first position with Jazz, Ufone, and Telenor coming in second, third, and fourth. SMS service in towns, however, was dominated by Jazz followed by Zong, Ufone, and Telenor in respective order.
Prior to the PTA surveys, OpenSignal – an independent global standard for analyzing consumer mobile experience – also recognized Zong as Pakistan’s number one telecom operator in terms of network superiority in its 2020 Network Experience Report.
OpenSignal ranked Zong the best network in five key service areas that included Video Experience, Download Speed Experience, Upload Speed Experience, 4G Availability, and 4G Coverage Experience.