What happened
Telenor Pakistan was formally amalgamated into Pak Telecom Mobile Limited (PTML) from Wednesday 1 July 2026, after the Islamabad High Court granted final statutory approval for the merger. With the amalgamation, Telenor Pakistan ceased to exist as a separate legal entity, completing one of the most significant transactions in the country’s telecommunications history. The merged company is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) and will operate as PTML.
The legal path to the merger had been cleared over several months. The Competition Commission of Pakistan approved PTCL’s acquisition of Telenor Pakistan in October 2025, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) granted its technical approval in March 2026, and the Pakistan Stock Exchange was informed of the development. Shareholders of both PTML and Telenor Pakistan had endorsed the scheme at separate meetings.
The combined market
Data released by the PTA showed that by the end of May 2026 there were more than 206 million mobile subscribers in Pakistan. Jazz remained the largest operator with 36.42 percent of the mobile subscriber base, followed by Zong with 26.62 percent. The combined share of the merged Ufone-Telenor entity now stands at 35.91 percent, making it a close second to Jazz.
A senior Ufone executive said around 4 million of the merged telecom company’s approximately 74 million subscribers could leave the network in the coming months as the two businesses are consolidated. Since the PTA had already granted technical approval, Ufone has begun integrating the frequencies of both companies, and subscribers of both Telenor and Ufone are now operating on the same network in Karachi, Hyderabad, Faisalabad and some other cities. The integration of billing mechanisms, balance loading and the migration of Telenor SIMs will begin at a later stage.
What the companies say
In a statement, Ufone said it has promised continuity of service for both Ufone and Telenor customers during the integration, along with access to improved connectivity and digital experience. The company said Telenor Pakistan’s operations, network infrastructure and customer base will be fully integrated into PTML (Ufone 5G), creating a combined entity with expanded reach, a stronger spectrum portfolio and greater capacity to invest in next-generation connectivity and digital services.
Hatem Bamatraf, President and CEO of PTCL, called the completion “a defining moment” for the company and for Pakistan’s telecom industry, thanking the government and the institutions involved. He said the ambition for the combined company was to bring customers products and services that set a new benchmark for digital experience in Pakistan.
Why it matters
The completion reduces Pakistan’s mobile market from four major operators to three, concentrating a large share of subscribers and spectrum in a single PTCL-owned business. That scale could accelerate network investment, including 5G, but it also raises questions about competition and pricing that regulators will watch. For millions of customers, the practical effects will arrive gradually through network, billing and SIM integration.
What is still uncertain
The merger’s consumer-facing future remains unsettled. Technology news outlet PhoneWorld reported on 1 July, citing sources with knowledge of the integration plan, that the combined business would not keep either legacy brand and would instead operate under the e& identity of PTCL’s Abu Dhabi-based parent group; that report has not been confirmed by the companies. The pace of SIM migration, any changes to pricing or service quality, and the final treatment of the 4 million subscribers the company expects to lose will only become clear as integration proceeds.
Sources & reporting notes
This is a summary of published reporting, not independent reporting. Details are as carried by the cited sources, which were reviewed on 2026-07-01.
- Dawn — "Telenor Pakistan, Ufone formally merge after IHC approval"1 July 2026 · The completion of the amalgamation into PTML, the end of Telenor Pakistan as a separate entity, the PTA subscriber figures, the expected subscriber departures, the network-integration status and Hatem Bamatraf's statement.
- PhoneWorld — "IHC approves Telenor-Ufone merger as sources reveal e& will replace both brand names"1 July 2026 · The court's sanction of the scheme under the Companies Act, 2017 and the unconfirmed report that the merged entity will rebrand under the e& identity.
