Jazz reaches 1,000 live 5G sites in Pakistan

In Pakistan, Jazz’s fifth-generation mobile network now has 1,000 live sites. The Veon subsidiary reached the mark only months after switching on 5G in March, and claims to be the first operator in the country to do so, Data Center Dynamics reports.

The buildout started in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Multan and Faisalabad. Jazz has expanded across those markets and added Sialkot and Gujranwala. A live site is an operating network location; the milestone therefore describes the scale of the rollout, not the number of subscribers or the speeds each customer receives.

Jazz’s next target is 2,500 5G sites by the end of the year. Kazim Mujtaba, president of Jazz GSM, said the pace was intended to bring 5G’s benefits to more Pakistanis, with greater capacity, faster speeds and more reliable connectivity. The company also links the larger network to new services and use cases as adoption grows.

The timing places Jazz alongside domestic rival Zong, which launched its network at the same time. Pakistan’s government had previously set a target to launch 5G services last summer, but that target was not met. The regulatory milestone is background here; the visible change is the speed at which an operator is adding working sites after receiving permission to run the network.

So what changes concretely? Jazz says the expansion is intended to bring greater capacity, faster speeds and more reliable connectivity to more Pakistanis. The figures are Jazz’s rollout claims: no independent performance test, customer count or service-by-service deployment detail is provided, so 1,000 live sites is the firmest measure available.