Zong Tops Pakistan’s Mobile Network Experience Rankings in Q1 2026: Opensignal Report

Pakistan’s telecom sector has entered 2026 with heightened competition, but the latest Mobile Network Experience Benchmarking Report by Opensignal places Zong as the country’s most consistent mobile operator. Based on billions of real-user measurements collected over a 90-day period, the report reflects actual consumer experience across 159 districts.

Unlike traditional network testing, the study focuses on Quality of Experience (QoE), analyzing how users interact with services like video streaming, gaming, and browsing under real-world conditions—both indoors and outdoors, and during peak usage hours.

Zong ranked first nationally in download speed, upload speed, video experience, and Time on Network, highlighting its strong balance of performance and reliability. Pakistan’s average mobile download speed stood at 18.60 Mbps, with Zong leading the benchmark.

Operator-by-Operator: National Standings

Four operators, Jazz, Telenor, Ufone, and Zong, are benchmarked across all five metrics. No single carrier sweeps every category, though Zong commands the strongest overall profile.

Zong leads on four of five national metrics: download speed (18.62 Mbps), upload speed (7.65 Mbps), video experience (47.06), and time on network (96.82%), giving it the most rounded national performance. Jazz is close on video experience (47.00, within 0.06 points) and second on download speed. Ufone’s standout result is gaming, where its score of 48.22 outpaces Zong’s 44.37 by a meaningful margin, suggesting lower latency and packet-loss characteristics on its network. Telenor trails across every category, scoring just 6.66 Mbps on downloads and 34.84 Mbps on video. the lowest marks in the cohort.

“No single operator sweeps every category; Ufone’s gaming edge over Zong underscores that network quality is multidimensional.”

The report concludes that while no single operator dominates every category, Zong’s consistent performance across key metrics secures its position as Pakistan’s leading mobile network in Q1 2026.

Islamabad

Rawalpindi

Lahore

Karachi

Peshawar

Quetta

Abbottabad

Faisalabad

Sukkur

Multan

Gujranwala

Hyderabad

Gwadar

Muzaffarabad (AJK — includes SCO)

Gilgit (GB — includes SCO)

Analysis & Key Takeaways

Zong’s Structural Advantage

Zong leads the headline download speed category in 8 out of 15 cities and secures the top time-on-network performance in 12 cities, including four out of five locations where availability exceeds 97%. Its strongest performance appears in Multan, where it delivers an upload speed of 10.09 Mbps—the highest upload figure recorded by any operator across all city benchmarks. Overall, its consistent results across diverse regions such as Lahore, Quetta, and Hyderabad reflect a network strategy focused on both geographic coverage and stable urban performance.

Jazz Dominates the Capital Region

Jazz emerges as the strongest performer in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Quetta, and Hyderabad, leading in download speeds across these cities. In Islamabad, it records 20.11 Mbps, significantly ahead of Zong’s 16.39 Mbps. It also achieves the highest video experience score across all operators and cities, reaching 54.35 in Rawalpindi. These results indicate particularly strong network infrastructure across the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa regions.

Ufone’s Gaming Strength

Ufone leads the games experience category in 12 of 15 cities, including all major urban centres such as Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Karachi, and Peshawar. Its best gaming score of 51.82 is recorded in Karachi. Unlike speed-based metrics, gaming performance reflects latency and jitter stability, suggesting that Ufone’s network is better optimised for real-time responsiveness despite lower overall throughput rankings.

Telenor’s Ongoing Performance Gap

Telenor ranks lowest in download speed in 13 cities and in video experience in 11 cities. However, it shows a notable exception in Gwadar, where it achieves a 99.69% time-on-network score—the highest recorded across all operators and cities in the report. It also leads in time-on-network performance in Muzaffarabad and Gilgit, indicating relatively stronger reliability in northern regions despite weaker overall speeds.

Remote Cities: Infrastructure Divide

Gwadar, Gilgit, and Muzaffarabad highlight significant connectivity disparities. In Gwadar, even the best video experience score (Zong’s 40.38) remains lower than Telenor’s weakest video score in Karachi (43.43). Gilgit’s download speeds do not exceed 15.30 Mbps for any operator, while its highest video score is Jazz’s 43.53. Muzaffarabad records the lowest overall performance in the dataset. The state-run SCO (Special Communication Organisation), operating in these areas, consistently delivers the lowest download and video experience scores in both Muzaffarabad and Gilgit.