 | |
 Zong Headquarters in Islamabad, Pakistan | |
| Zong China Mobile Pakistan | |
| Formerly | Paktel |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
| Industry | Telecommunication |
| Founded | April 2008; 16 years ago (2008-04) |
| Headquarters | Islamabad,Pakistan |
Area served | Pakistan |
Key people | Huo Junli (CEO) |
| Products | Mobile services Data services Mobile banking Telephony |
| Parent | China Mobile |
| Website | www |
CMPak Limited,[1][2] doing business asZong (Urdu:زونگ), is a Pakistani mobile data network operator, owned byChina Mobile.[3]
It is the first overseas setup ofChina Mobile through acquisition of a license fromMillicom to operate a GSM network in Pakistan in 2008.[4]
It is Pakistan's second-largest mobile service provider with a subscriber base of 51 million, among which 39 million are 4G/LTE subscribers. With over 14,0004G enabled sites across the country, it has a market share of 26% among cellular operators in the country.[5]
Zong commenced operations asPaktel byCable & Wireless in 1991. It was the first company granted a free license to carry outcellular phone services in Pakistan. It carried outAMPS services until 2004, when the company launched GSM services.
In 2003,Millicom Corporation, who at that time were majority owners ofInstaphone, bought Paktel from Cable & Wireless. Millicom installed a new management team headed by John Tumelty, former CEO of Instaphone, and Chief Financial Officer David Ordman.
On 22 January 2007, Millicom International Cellular S.A. stated that it would sell its 88.86 percent stake in Paktel Limited to China Mobile for $284 million, which includes the repayment of intercompany debt. The sale implies anenterprise value for Paktel of $460 million, Millicom said in its press release. Merrill Lynch advised China Mobile on the transaction.
On 4 May 2007, Paktel Limited was renamed to China Mobile Pakistan.[6] On 16 May 2007 China Mobile announced that it had increased its stake in CMPak to 100%.[7]
On 1 April 2008, Paktel was rebranded to Zong.[8]
China Mobile Pakistan has invested more than US$2 billion so far to build up network infrastructure in Pakistan since 2008.[9] It will invest US$1 billion in next two to three year for next generation service roll-out.[10]
Zong has built the third-largest cellular network in the country with over 10,000base stations.[11] Togo green, Zong has installed solar powered cell sites in various locations. It has country's largest solar power telecommunication network.[12][13]
Its cellular towers are mostly installed inhouse yet it also utilizes B2S towers provided by Tawal, E.co, and Infrashare.
Itsnetwork base stations, microwave links, IT support and transmission towers are maintained and provided byZTE Pakistan.[14]
Zong currently usesGSM,UMTS/HSPA+ andLTE technologies.
| Frequency | Protocol | Band | Class | Channel Width |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 900 MHz | GSM/GPRS/EDGE | 2G | 7.6 MHz | |
| 1800 MHz | GSM/GPRS/EDGE | 2G | 1 MHz | |
| 2100 MHz | UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSPA+ | 1 | 3G | 5 MHz / 10 MHz |
| 1800 MHz | LTE/LTE-A | 3 | 4G | 15 MHz / 20 MHz |
| 2100 MHz | LTE/LTE-A | 1 | 4G | 5 MHz / 10 MHz |
On 23 April 2014, Pakistan concluded the auction for the next generation of mobile spectrum. Zong paid $516 million for a 10 MHz spectrum in the 2.1 GHz frequency range for 3G and a 10 MHz spectrum in the 1.8 GHz frequency range for 4G, making it Pakistan's first 3G and 4G operator.[10]
Zong has refarmed 5 MHz of its 2100 MHz 3G spectrum for 4G. They are currently deploying (via carrier aggregation) 15 MHz of Band 3 (1800 MHz), and 10 MHz of Band 1 (2100 MHz) forLTE-A.
As of August 2019, Zong is the first of three mobile network operators in Pakistan to successfully conduct5G trials.[15][16] In the trial, speeds of up to 1.14 GB/s were achieved.[17]
Zong uses the following numbering scheme:
+92 3 1 N1N2N3N4N5N6N7N8N9
Where, 92 is theISD code for Pakistan and is required when dialing outside the country, 3 is the mobile access code, and 1 is the prefix for Zong allocated byPakistan Telecommunication Authority. Omitting +92 would require 0 instead to represent local call, hence 031 is the general prefix and N1N2N3N4N5N6N7N8N9 is the subscriber number.
Zong plans to launchFiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Broadband internet. Initially the service will only be available in select areas of Karachi.[18]
Zong operates 22 customer service centres, 305franchises, and 190,000retail customer points nationwide.[19]
At the time of its launch in 2008, China Mobile Pakistan ran theadvertising campaign for Zong with the tagline 'Say it all' (Urdu:سب کہہ دو).China Mobile Pakistan ran advertising for Zong with new tagline 'A New Dream' (Urdu:ایک نیا خواب). In February, the company announced its new tagline is "Let's Get Digital".[20]
Zong offersprepaid,postpaid, ladies, and youth plans. The postpaid, ladies, and youth plans are branded as bizXcess, Flutter, and Circle.[21][22][23] Moreover, it also offers data plans andbranch-less banking.[24]
Timepey was the mobile banking service offered by Zong in association with Askari Bank Limited from late 2012.[25]Timepey lets users pay utility bills, transfer money to specified recipients anywhere in the country, deposit and withdraw cash and carry out account transfers.[26][27]
Discontinuing Timepey in 2017, Zong relaunched its mobile financial services with a new brand "PayMax" in association withAskari Bank Limited. PayMax lets users pay utility bills, transfer money to specified recipients anywhere in the country, deposit and withdraw cash and carry out account transfers.
| Mobile network operators |
| ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Internet service providers |
| ||||
