PTA fines Telenor, Ufone and Zong Rs 145.8m over weak signal in five towns

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has fined three mobile operators a combined Rs 145.833 million for failing its Quality of Service standards. The orders were issued on Monday and the money is due within 30 days.

Who pays what

• Telenor Pakistan: Rs 68.055 million
• Pakistan Telecom Mobile Limited (Ufone): Rs 38.889 million
• CMPak Limited (Zong): Rs 38.889 million

Where the networks failed

PTA named the locations in each order:

• Telenor: Buner, Murree, Risalpur, Pindi Bhattian and Matiari
• Ufone: Murree and Risalpur
• Zong: Buner, Murree, Pindi Bhattian and Matiari

Murree appears against all three. Buner, Pindi Bhattian and Matiari appear twice each.

What was actually measured

The penalties come out of an independent QoS survey run across 53 cities through the quarters of 2025, covering voice, SMS and mobile broadband. PTA then ran re-verification surveys and found problems with call setup and completion rates, SMS success rates, webpage load times, latency and signal strength.

The operators blamed terrain, power outages, operational issues, outside interference and technical discrepancies. PTA rejected all of it, saying fixes made afterwards can count as mitigation but do not undo a violation already recorded in a survey.

What it means for you

A fine does not put bars on your phone. If your service is bad where you live, the practical route is a complaint to your operator first, then to PTA's Complaint Management System if the operator does not fix it inside the time it promises. Our step-by-step guide to filing a PTA complaint has the forms and the deadlines. Keep dates, times and the exact location, because PTA's case rests on measurements at a place.

If you are on prepaid, remember that every top-up already carries tax before you see the balance. Our mobile load tax calculator shows what a Rs 100 card actually gives you.