ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s telecom operator Zong on Thursday said it became the first company to commercially launch fifth-generation (5G) services in more than 16 cities, including Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta, marking one of the country’s first large-scale rollouts of faster mobile connectivity.
Pakistan, a country of more than 240 million people, is one of the world’s largest telecom markets by population, with over 190 million mobile phone users.
However, most networks still operate on 4G infrastructure, and the rollout of 5G has been delayed in recent years due to regulatory, economic and spectrum allocation challenges.
Zong said its 5G services will provide high-speed and low-latency connectivity to support smart industries, transform health care and advance precision agriculture in a bid to drive sustainable growth and nationwide digital innovation.
“Ushering in a new era of digital connectivity, innovation, and economic acceleration, Zong has a strategic commitment to deploy and upgrade 1,000+ 5G sites nationwide in 2026, driving scale, speed, and impact across Pakistan’s digital ecosystem,” the company said in a statement.
