Zain Omantel International (ZOI) and Zong, a subsidiary of China Mobile Pakistan, have partnered to expand voice interconnect and roaming services between the Middle East and Pakistan, strengthening a key telecommunications corridor amid rising cross-border demand.
The agreement builds on an existing interconnect relationship in which Zain Omantel carries Zain Group and Omantel retail Pakistan traffic for Zong. Under the expanded partnership, both companies will increase cooperation across voice and mobility services and move toward consolidating roaming under a single group framework to simplify operations and enhance commercial alignment across the route.
Pakistan, one of South Asia’s largest telecom markets, has more than 200 million mobile subscribers nationwide. Zong serves over 53 million users and operates one of the country’s most extensive 4G networks.
Its parent company, China Mobile, is the world’s largest mobile operator by subscriber base, with more than one billion customers globally and a vast international network infrastructure.
Zain Omantel operates as an international carrier providing unified, AI-ready digital infrastructure across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and globally. The company delivers international voice, roaming, IP and capacity services to carriers, hyperscalers, mobile network operators, neoscalers and other network-centric businesses.
It carries more than 10 billion international voice minutes across 200 roaming countries, maintains the top-ranked ASN IP network in the Middle East and has investments in over 22 subsea cable systems worldwide.
Sohail Qadir CEO – Zain Omantel
“This partnership reflects our focus on quality mobility services and enabling customers growth. Pakistan is a strategically important market for the Gulf region. By aligning with Zong and the wider China Mobile ecosystem, we are strengthening service quality, simplifying governance and creating a scalable model for voice and mobility services across one of the region’s highest volume routes.”
Khurram Ishaq, Head of International Business at Zong, said that, “Zain Omantel is a trusted partner that understands our operational and commercial priorities,. It delivers consistent, high quality mobility services across the Middle East and provides the reliability and responsiveness we need to support our international growth. This partnership gives us confidence that our customers benefit from stable interconnect performance and a framework built for scale.”
Traffic between the Middle East and Pakistan is rising, driven by retail demand and cross-border mobility. Under the agreement, Zain Omantel and Zong will standardize voice and roaming traffic management, streamline interconnect processes, align governance and enhance service stability as volumes grow.
