Jazz has been given formal license for its recent spectrum acquisition. A ceremony will also be held by PTA today, where PTA Formally Awards 1800 MHZ Spectrum to Jazz.
It seems that Jazz is trying to maintain its leadership position in the growing mobile market to maintain its position in Pakistan. Pakistan is also the second largest market for VEON and for that reason not only it led them to the historical merger with Warid quite recently but the changes in the company speaks volume of the Group growing interest.
With the additional 4G spectrum, Jazz will be able to compete more aggressively in the mobile broadband market of Pakistan. Presently, Jazz uses three frequency bands i.e. 900, 1800 and 2100 MHz. For Data, it uses 10 Mhz of the 2100 Mhz for 3G and for 4G it has re-farmed 1800 MHz of Warid. Now, technically, Jazz will start working on aggregating the carriers to further improve the network data rates and the digital service portfolio.
Jazz enjoys the largest number of spectrum available and also has the highest number of subscribers. The operator is seen striving to further improve its services by utilizing this additional spectrum of 10 MHz and maintain its market position.
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Jazz is leading the Pakistani mobile market with around 55 million overall cellular subscribers. Whereas, Telenor was close to Jazz 3G subscribers until Jazz merged with Warid. But Telenor has 40 million subscribers out of which there are 10 million 3G and 0.3 mn 4G users. Zong, has 28 million users but it is leading the 4G market due to its 3 million subscriber’s base. At fourth place we have Ufone with 18 million overall users out of which only 4 million are 3G subscribers; this figure is decreasing due to its small chunk of 5 MHz band of 3G.
Jazz has made an extraordinary move as it moves closer to getting the additional 10 MHz that will help it further grow and lead the fast growing mobile industry of Pakistan.
Source: https://www.phoneworld.com.pk/pta-formally-awards-1800-mhz-spectrum-to-jazz/