Telenor, Zong, PTML Fined Rs145.8 Million for QoS Violations

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has fined three of the country’s four cellular operators a combined Rs145.833 million after network surveys found them falling short of mandatory call, SMS, and internet speed standards in cities from Murree to Matiari.

Telenor Pakistan carries the heaviest penalty at Rs68.055 million. Pakistan Telecom Mobile Limited (PTML, which operates Ufone) and CMPak Limited (Zong) were each fined Rs38.889 million. The orders, issued separately in September 2026, followed re-verification surveys conducted under the Cellular Mobile Network QoS Regulations, 2021.

All three operators now have 30 days to deposit the fines and file technical compliance reports showing what they have done to fix the problems.

Where PTML Fell Short

The PTA’s case against PTML centres on three locations. At Risalpur, five separate parameters missed the mark: Call Setup Success Rate, Call Connection Time, SMS Success Rate, Latency in Auto Mode, and Signal Strength.

Murree fared only marginally better, with Call Completion Ratio, SMS Success Rate, and Latency all found non-compliant. In Kandiaro, latency measured 80.28 milliseconds against a regulatory ceiling of under 75 ms—a gap small in absolute terms but significant under strict KPI thresholds.

PTML blamed power outages at serving sites, difficult terrain, equipment issues, and outside interference. The PTA’s response was pointed: whatever operators fix afterward doesn’t undo a violation an independent survey already recorded.

Zong’s Four-City Problem

Zong’s penalty traces to non-compliance in Buner, Murree, Pindi Bhattian, and Matiari, identified during the PTA’s fourth-quarter 2025 re-verification round. That followed an earlier survey across 53 cities in the first three quarters of 2025, which had already flagged degraded KPIs at multiple sites.

Zong argued that network optimisation work had since improved performance and pointed to site-availability gaps, sparse population, signal shadowing, and long inter-site distances, even disputing some drive-test results. The regulator rejected the defence on the same grounds it applied to PTML: measured non-compliance stands regardless of terrain or subsequent upgrades.

A Longer Case Against Telenor

Telenor’s penalty followed a more extended process. The PTA issued a show-cause notice on April 8, 2026, held a hearing on June 17, and concluded the operator had breached QoS requirements, licence conditions, and the regulatory framework tied to its network commitments.

The operator’s Rs68.055 million fine, the largest of the three, lands against a backdrop that isn’t flattering. In the PTA’s own independent QoS survey for the first quarter of 2026, Telenor posted the lowest overall KPI compliance rate among the four national operators, at 78 percent, trailing Jazz’s 95 percent, Zong’s 93 percent and Ufone’s 89 percent. Telenor did not secure the top overall ranking in any of the 18 cities surveyed that quarter.

Part of a Bigger Enforcement Pattern

This week’s fines aren’t an isolated event. IT Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja told the National Assembly last month that PTA has imposed Rs3.41 billion in QoS-related penalties on telecom operators over the past four years, backed by more than 500 QoS surveys and over 200 complaint-driven checks. In that same period, the regulator issued 20 warning letters and 86 show-cause notices.

The minister also confirmed that recent spectrum auction terms and revised Next Generation Mobile Services licence conditions have raised the bar further, with more 4G and 5G rollout obligations, tighter QoS benchmarks, and phased network modernisation requirements. Operators aren’t just being fined for old problems; the standard they’re being measured against is also getting harder to meet.

What This Means for Subscribers

For ordinary users in the affected towns, many of them smaller cities and hill stations rather than major metros, the fines don’t put money back in their pockets directly, since penalties go to the regulator, not to compensation for the specific customers who experienced dropped calls or slow data. What the enforcement does signal is that PTA’s post-2021 QoS framework is generating real consequences rather than paper warnings, particularly as it layers Section 23 penalties under the Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-organization) Act, 1996, on top of routine survey findings.

The pattern across all three cases is consistent: sites outside major urban centres, hill towns, rural districts, and terrain-challenged areas are where compliance breaks down most often. That points to a structural gap in Pakistan’s mobile infrastructure that periodic fines alone are unlikely to close. Sustained compliance will depend on whether operators treat rural and hill-station coverage as core network planning rather than an afterthought addressed only after a survey catches them short.