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May 2026 data shows Jazz leading complaint volumes across the board while Ufone’s coverage failures run far ahead of its market size — and frustrated users are venting the same grievances on social media
Aftab Maken
ISLAMABAD: A new complaints report for May 2026 has laid bare a telecom sector under strain, with subscribers across Pakistan reporting widespread dissatisfaction over poor network quality, coverage gaps, and billing discrepancies — grievances that have spilled well beyond regulatory filings and onto social media, where users have been publicly calling out operators for weeks.
Jazz dominates quality-of-service failures
According to the latest data, Jazz remains the most complained-about operator on Quality of Service (QoS), accounting for 37% of all complaints in this category — driven largely by call drops, excessive noise, and generally poor network performance. Zong followed closely behind at 27%, while Telenor and Ufone accounted for 22% and 14%, respectively.
The finding tracks with a pattern that has repeated itself in PTA’s monthly complaint data through 2026: Jazz topped complaint rankings in January, February and March as well, even as the company posted strong financial results, including FY25 revenue of roughly Rs 457 billion and record investment in network expansion. Critics online have repeatedly pointed to that gap between rising revenue and stagnant service quality as the core of their frustration.
Ufone’s coverage problem: small market share, outsized complaints
Perhaps the most striking trend in the report concerns “Service Provision Issues” tied to specific coverage areas. While Jazz accounts for the highest raw volume of coverage complaints at 34%, Ufone shows a disproportionate spike relative to its size: despite holding only a 14% subscriber share, Ufone users generated 26% of all coverage-related complaints — a sign of real strain on the operator’s network reach compared to competitors of similar or larger scale.
Karachi, Rawalpindi and Islamabad were flagged as major hotspots where consumers struggle to find a reliable signal, even in areas considered urban centres.
Billing disputes: overcharging complaints concentrated in big cities
The report also points to a persistent lack of transparency in billing, with overcharging and tariff discrepancies among the top consumer grievances. Jazz again leads this metric, responsible for 35% of all billing complaints. Geographically:
- Karachi and Rawalpindi saw the heaviest concentration of billing complaints against Jazz
- Karachi was also the primary source of billing frustration for Telenor and Zong subscribers
- Multan emerged as a notable trouble spot for Ufone’s billing accuracy
What subscribers are saying online
The frustration reflected in the official numbers mirrors what’s been circulating on social media for months. In early August, one Jazz user posted that his internet package stopped working entirely during load-shedding despite having paid for an expensive data plan; another subscriber replied that he was facing the identical problem on Ufone’s network, suggesting the issue isn’t confined to a single operator. Complaints about unexplained balance deductions have also been a recurring theme — one widely shared post in March accused Jazz of charging customers even for support calls that disconnected before connecting, calling it a “scam” that no one was addressing. Separately, in May, several users flagged what they described as unsolicited activation of Jazz’s “Advance” credit-loan feature, saying small balance thresholds were triggering automatic loan prompts they never opted into.
Billing anger isn’t limited to one platform, either — an Urdu-language post that went semi-viral in early May summed up a common sentiment: that operators had quietly raised package rates overnight while service quality stayed flat, leaving customers with “no real alternative” since every operator draws similar complaints. That post referenced findings that mobile packages nationwide have risen anywhere from 20% to 50% in recent years depending on the plan, prompting PTA to introduce the Mobile Tariff Regulations 2025, which now restrict operators to quarterly (rather than monthly) price revisions.
Regulatory and political backdrop
The complaints data lands against a broader backdrop of regulatory pressure on the sector. The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on IT and Telecommunication met on July 14, 2026 specifically to address what it called severe network degradation, with Federal Minister Shaza Fatima briefing lawmakers on the issue. Separately, PTA fined all four major operators a combined roughly Rs 740 million just weeks ago over illegal SIM issuance and lapses in subscriber verification — with Ufone facing the heaviest individual penalty among the four, at over Rs 233 million. An independent PTA quality-of-service survey covering January–March had also found that no operator fully met regulatory benchmarks, with Telenor placing last in overall compliance and Zong resolving less than a fifth of complaints within 24 hours.
Conclusion
The May 2026 report paints a grim picture of a telecom industry struggling to meet basic service standards even as operators report healthy revenue growth. With Jazz leading in total complaints, Ufone suffering disproportionate coverage failures relative to its size, and social media timelines full of users airing near-identical grievances about dropped connections and disputed charges, the data suggests operators are still failing to align their infrastructure and billing systems with the growing needs — and growing patience — of their subscriber base.
