Pakistan’s mobile internet landscape in the first quarter of 2026 shows gradual improvement, but clear differences still exist between regions. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), in collaboration with OpenSignal, collected more than 1.23 billion data samples over 90 days across 159 districts. This makes it one of the most detailed studies ever conducted on mobile quality of experience in the country.

Zong Leads Pakistan Mobile Internet Speed and Coverage Report, National Average Reaches 18.60 Mbps

The report focuses on real user experience rather than theoretical network performance. It measures how smartphone users actually experience mobile services in daily life, both indoors and outdoors, during busy and off-peak hours. The study is based on five key performance indicators: download speed, upload speed, video experience (measured on a 0–100 scale), gaming experience (0–100 scale), and time on network, which shows how often users stay connected to mobile data services.

National Mobile Performance Overview

When data from all four mobile operators is combined across districts, Pakistan shows a mixed mobile internet performance picture. While 4G coverage remains strong nationwide, the real-world experience for video streaming and gaming still stays in the lower to mid range on a 100-point scale. The average download speed across all devices is recorded at 18.60 Mbps. However, users with high-end smartphones perform much better, reaching speeds of up to 30.20 Mbps. Upload speed remains relatively low at 5.81 Mbps, which affects smooth sharing, live streaming, and content uploads.

User experience scores also highlight noticeable gaps in performance. Video experience stands at 44.97 out of 100, while gaming performance is slightly lower at 40.93 out of 100, indicating lag and buffering issues during everyday use. Network availability remains stable overall, with users staying connected 94.21% of the time. However, the report highlights a significant 11.6 Mbps gap between average and high-end devices, showing that smartphone quality still plays a major role in actual internet performance in Pakistan.

Read more: Zong Launches 5G in 21 Cities Across Pakistan: Full Coverage List

Operator-Wise National Standings

Four mobile operators—Jazz, Telenor, Ufone, and Zong—are compared across all five key performance metrics. The report shows that no single operator dominates every category, although Zong delivers the strongest overall performance profile. Zong leads in four major national categories:

• Download speed: 18.62 Mbps
• Upload speed: 7.65 Mbps
• Video experience: 47.06
• Time on network: 96.82%

These results make Zong the most balanced operator at the national level. Jazz performs closely behind, especially in video experience where it scores 47.00, just slightly below Zong. It also ranks second in download speed, showing strong competition in key urban usage areas.

Ufone’s strongest performance is in gaming, where it scores 48.22, higher than Zong’s 44.37. This suggests better responsiveness and lower latency on its network, making it more suitable for real-time gaming. Telenor, however, remains behind the other operators across most categories. It records the lowest download speed at 6.66 Mbps and a video experience score of 34.84, the weakest among all operators in the study. The report concludes that no operator leads in every category, and Ufone’s advantage in gaming highlights that mobile network quality depends on multiple performance factors, not just speed.

City-by-City Mobile Performance Results

The report also presents detailed results from 15 benchmarked cities, with full performance breakdowns for each mobile operator. These cities include major urban and regional areas across Pakistan. Each city table compares Jazz, Telenor, Ufone, and Zong across key metrics such as speed, video experience, gaming performance, and network availability. A ★ symbol is used to highlight the highest score in each category within every city. This city-level data provides a clearer view of how mobile network performance changes across different parts of the country, showing strong differences between urban centers and less-developed regions.

Islamabad

Rawalpindi

Lahore

Karachi

Peshawar

Quetta

Abbottabad

Faisalabad

Sukkur

Multan

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Gujranwala

Hyderabad

Gwadar

Muzaffarabad (AJK — includes SCO)

Gilgit (GB — includes SCO)

Analysis & Key Takeaways

Zong’s Structural Advantage

Zong shows a strong overall advantage in national performance. It leads the download speed category in 8 out of 15 cities and also records the highest time-on-network score in 12 cities, including four cities where availability exceeds 97%. Its strongest performance comes from Multan, where it achieves an upload speed of 10.09 Mbps, the highest recorded upload result across all operators and cities in the report. This consistent performance across cities such as Lahore, Quetta, and Hyderabad suggests that Zong’s network strategy focuses on both wide coverage and strong urban performance, linked with Zong connectivity issues in some regions.

Jazz Dominates the Capital Region

Jazz performs strongly in major urban centers. It leads in download speed in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Quetta, and Hyderabad. In Islamabad, Jazz records 20.11 Mbps, outperforming Zong’s 16.39 Mbps in the same city. Jazz also achieves the highest video experience score in the entire report, reaching 54.35 out of 100 in Rawalpindi. These results highlight strong network infrastructure across Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa regions, with rising competition from Zong 5G Lahore areas.

Ufone’s Gaming Strength

Ufone stands out in gaming performance, winning the games experience category in 12 out of 15 cities, including major cities like Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Karachi, and Peshawar. Its best gaming score is 51.82 in Karachi, the highest single-city gaming performance in the report. This shows that Ufone performs better in low-latency tasks, where fast response time matters more than raw speed.

Telenor’s Ongoing Performance Gap

Telenor ranks lowest in most categories, finishing last in download speed in 13 cities and in video experience in 11 cities. However, it does show one strong result in Gwadar, where it records a time-on-network score of 99.69%, the highest in the entire study. It also leads in network availability in Muzaffarabad and Gilgit, suggesting relatively stronger coverage in northern regions despite weaker speed performance.

Remote Cities: Infrastructure Divide

Cities such as Gwadar, Gilgit, and Muzaffarabad highlight a clear digital gap in Pakistan’s mobile infrastructure. In Gwadar, even the best video score (Zong’s 40.38) remains lower than some urban low-performance scores. In Karachi, Telenor’s worst video score is 43.43, still higher than Gwadar’s top result. In Gilgit, no operator crosses 15.30 Mbps in download speed, while the highest video score is Jazz’s 43.53. Muzaffarabad shows the weakest overall performance among all cities in the dataset. The state-run SCO (Special Communication Organisation) records the lowest speeds and video experience in both Muzaffarabad and Gilgit, alongside Zong Jazz 5G launch Islamabad Karachi Lahore expansion updates.