Pakistan’s telecom regulator has issued a No Objection Certificate for the merger of Telenor Pakistan into Pak Telecom Mobile Limited (PTML), the operator of Ufone, clearing the final major regulatory hurdle for one of the country’s most significant telecom consolidations in recent years — but attaching a comprehensive compliance framework to the approval.
The PTA had granted technical approval in March 2026 and subsequently sought unconditional acceptance of its conditions from both operators before issuing the NOC. Ufone has agreed to an 18-page set of conditions. The merger will now proceed to the Islamabad High Court through a scheme of arrangement, a process expected to take up to four weeks, after which Telenor Pakistan will cease to exist as a separate legal entity and all its licences will be absorbed by PTML.
The conditions are extensive. PTML must assume all liabilities and regulatory obligations of Telenor Pakistan and cannot revise retail or wholesale tariffs without prior PTA approval. Predatory pricing and cross-subsidisation are explicitly banned. A detailed network integration plan must be submitted within 60 days, and service quality targets have been set: median speeds of 20 Mbps within two years, 35 Mbps within four years, and 50 Mbps within nine years. Franchise and retailer agreements must remain unchanged for at least six months post-merger. Towers shared with Jazz and Zong cannot be decommissioned without regulatory approval.
The merged entity will control approximately 31.7% of market revenue and 35.7% of Pakistan’s roughly 202 million mobile subscribers, creating the country’s second-largest operator by user base behind Jazz. The underlying acquisition — PTCL’s $400 million purchase of Telenor Pakistan — was signed in December 2023 and completed in December 2025.
Source: https://meatechwatch.com/2026/04/09/pta-clears-ufone-telenor-merger-with-extensive-conditions/
