I believe this is the way forward—sunsetting 3G and reallocating its spectrum for 4G, given that 3G customers now number fewer than 3 million across all networks. Unfortunately, the deployed spectrum is still 30 MHz in Faisalabad, with 20 MHz in Band 3 and 5 MHz each in Bands 1 and 8. However, I think they will soon begin shutting down 3G in major cities and refarm that spectrum for 4G.Jazz is now using 40 MHz of total LTE bandwidth (in certain parts of Islamabad)
20 MHz B3 + 10 MHz B8 + 10 MHz B1 (was 5 MHz previously)
There was NO Jazz 3G available in this area. I forced my phone to 3G only and it showed 'Emergency Calls Only' and ServiceMode showed it was connected to a Zong tower.
2G only works with 900 MHz.
Jazz and Ufone (after their merger) now have sufficient spectrum for 2G even after allocating 40 MHz for 4G. Jazz still has 4.8 MHz in Band 3 and 0.8 MHz in Band 8 for 2G. Similarly, if Ufone deploys the same 40 MHz pattern for 4G after the merger, they would still have 4.8 MHz in Band 3, 0.8 MHz in Band 8, and a full 10 MHz in Band 5 (which is unlikely to be renewed).
In the future, Zong might acquire additional spectrum in Band 1 to compete with Jazz and Ufone.