Jazz, officially known as Pakistan Mobile Communications Limited, is Pakistan's largest mobile network and internet services provider. Founded in 1994 as a joint venture between Saif Group and Motorola Inc., the company was initially known as Mobilink. In 2001, Egypt-based Orascom Investment Holding acquired Motorola’s shares, becoming the majority shareholder. Six years later, Orascom bought out the remaining shares from Saif Group, taking full ownership of the company. In 2010, Russian operator VEON acquired the telecom assets of Orascom, including Jazz, in a multi-billion dollar deal. This acquisition made VEON the world’s fifth-largest mobile network operator by subscriber base. In 2015, VEON announced the acquisition of Warid Telecom, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Group, which was completed in 2016. Following the merger of Mobilink and Warid Pakistan, the company was rebranded as Jazz in 2017. VEON purchased the remaining 15% shares in Jazz from Abu Dhabi Group in 2021, achieving 100% ownership.
Alias
Pakistan Mobile Communications Limited
Country
Pakistan
Type
Mobile Network Operator
Ownership
VEON
Jazz Pakistan logo

3G Network

In July 2014 the company launched a 3G UMTS network over B1 (2100 MHz) after securing 10 MHz of spectrum in a 2014 PTA auction. Mobilink through a partnership with Huawei reportedly launched 3G UMTS over B8 (900 MHz).

Network Frequency Band Status
B1 (2100 MHz)
Active
B8 (900 MHz)
Active
Date Event Subtype
Launch of 3G Network
Launch

4G Network

Following the Warid merger, Jazz was able to utilise Warid's technology neutral licence to launch a 4G LTE network over B3 (1800 MHz) using a 5 MHz block of spectrum in December 2014. A further PTA auction held in May 2017 saw Jazz awarded an additional 10 MHz of 1800 MHz spectrum, unfortunately due to the two allotments being non-contiguous peak data rate remains limited.

Jazz launched B8 (900 MHz) services in March 2019 and upgraded its 4G network to LTE-A Pro in July 2021, launching Masssive MIMO and achieving total throughputs of 960 Mb/s across 8 handsets.

4G Frequency Bands
Network Frequency Band Max. Channel Bandwidth Status Known EARFCNs
B1 (2100 MHz)
5
Active
274
B3 (1800 MHz)
5
Active
B3 (1800 MHz)
10
Active
1850
B8 (900 MHz)
5
Active
3748
Date Event Subtype
Launch of 4G Network
Launch