According to statistics provided by Pakistan Telecom Authority, the total number of users of China Mobile's Zong brand in Pakistan has reached 5.98 million by the end of the first quarter of 2009.
PTA said during the first three months of 2009, the number of mobile phone users in Pakistan increased 1.535 million, reaching a total number of 91.442 million, of which, 5.98 million were users of China Mobile's Zong brand. This number of users made China Mobile rank the fifth of the total six telecom operators in Pakistan with market share of 6.54%.
The statistics show that in the first quarter of 2009, Pakistan's mobile phone popularization rate reached 56.8%. Mobilink, with 28.24 million users and 30.88% market share, still held the first place in Pakistan's telecom market, followed by Telenor with 19.985 million users and 21.86% market share. Ufone ranked third with 19.61 million users and 21.45% market share; Warid, forth with 17.376 million users and 19% market share; and Instaphone, sixth with 250,000 users and 0.27% market share.
Of these six operators, the numbers of users and market shares of Mobilink and Instaphone declined a little while those of the other four all see slight increases. Because the market share distance between China Mobile's Zong and Warid is large, so it takes time for the Chinese telecom giant to be a mainstream operator in Pakistan.
