Faster phones, worse video on 4G

Data speed hits 18.9 Mbps, premium phones reach 31.3 Mbps Pakistani smartphone users are facing a growing paradox: faster network speeds, but worse video playback. Despite minor improvements in raw download performance across the country, video streaming quality has taken a hit nationwide, revealing a widening gap between connection speed and real-world usability. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority's Opensignal benchmarking report puts national 4G download speed at 18.9 Mbps, up from 18.6 Mbps in the first quarter. High-end phones averaged 31.3 Mbps. Upload speed slipped from 5.81 Mbps to 5.32 Mbps. The video score, which measures how a stream actually looks and whether it stalls, fell from 44.97 to 37.53 out of 100. In other words, the typical 4G connection got a fraction faster and a lot worse to watch. Games experience moved the other way, from 40.93 to 43.85. Users spent 93.67% of connected time on 4G, almost unchanged from 94.21% in the previous quarter. The figures come from crowdsourced quality-of-experience data collected over 90 days in the second quarter of 2026. Opensignal scores everyday use, indoor and outdoor, peak and off-peak, rather than a controlled drive test. The report covers national averages and 20 cities. It is not a league table of licence compliance. No operator escaped the video drop. Jazz's national video score went from 47.00 to 41.51. Zong's went from 47.06 to 41.66. Ufone fell from 42.33 to 36.64. Telenor dropped from 34.84 to 30.3. Download speeds barely moved for the two leaders. Jazz was at 17.62 Mbps in the first quarter and 17.61 Mbps in the second. Zong was at 18.62 Mbps, then 18.55 Mbps. Telenor improved from 6.66 Mbps to 7.5 Mbps and Ufone from 12.36 Mbps to 12.82 Mbps, both from a lower base. A file can finish downloading while a live stream still buffers. Video is how news, classrooms, shops and ads reach a phone. A seven-point fall with flat speeds points to congestion, uneven capacity at busy hours, or how traffic is handled, not a blank space on the coverage map. The device in the pocket still matters. National 4G download on all devices was 18.9 Mbps. High-end phones averaged 31.3 Mbps, up from 30.2 Mbps in the first quarter. That gap of about 12 Mbps is built into the same networks. On national 4G, Zong led download at 18.55 Mbps, upload at 7.81 Mbps and time-on-network at 96.59%. Its video score of 41.66 was a shade ahead of Jazz. Games were 47.28, second to Ufone. Jazz was second on download at 17.61 Mbps and upload at 6.26 Mbps. Time-on-network was 93.33%. Games were its weakest national metric at 40.15, the lowest of the four. Ufone did not win on speed. It won on games, at 50.08 nationally. Download was 12.82 Mbps, upload 4.42 Mbps, video 36.64, time-on-network 92.16%, the lowest availability of the four. Telenor, although merged with Ufone but still mentioned separately by the report, finished last on download, upload, video and games. Download of 7.5 Mbps was less than half of Zong's. Upload was 2.82 Mbps. Video was 30.3. Games were 37.88. Time-on-network, at 92.58%, was close to the pack. The problem was quality when connected, not only whether a signal was there. City rankings do not follow national table Jazz took download in Islamabad at 20.86 Mbps, with the strongest large-city video score in the report at 50.22. It also led Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Faisalabad, Sukkur, Hyderabad and Swabi. Quetta was a standout: Jazz download of 22.41 Mbps is one of the highest city prints in the file. Zong led Lahore at 21.26 Mbps, with video of 48.89, games of 53.56 and time-on-network of 98.18%. It also led Multan at 21.6 Mbps, Karachi at 18.27 Mbps, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Chakwal, Khairpur and Gwadar. In the three northern cities where SCO is also measured, Mirpur, Skardu and Muzaffarabad, Zong led download in each. Karachi splits the spoils. Zong was fastest. Jazz had the best video, at 47.18. Ufone had the best games, at 56.03. Telenor's 12.19 Mbps was its least-bad large-city download and still last of the four. Ufone's games lead holds in most printed cities, including Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Quetta and Hyderabad. Its coverage is thinner in places. Time-on-network was 87.97% in Hyderabad, 85.4% in Khairpur and 48.67% in Skardu. Telenor's weakest city print is Gwadar: 3.87 Mbps download, 1.27 Mbps upload, video of 13.75 and time-on-network of 59.18%. Swabi, Abbottabad, Peshawar and Islamabad were also in the mid-single-digit download range.