Pakistan now has a formal license category for satellite internet, five global operators positioned to apply for it, and a regulator that has spent months describing the process as nearly finished. What it does not yet have is a confirmed Federal Cabinet approval of that framework, the one step officials themselves have repeatedly said is still pending. That gap between "the rules exist" and "the service is approved" is where Pakistan's satellite internet story actually sits today.
How the process started
Starlink, the satellite internet arm of SpaceX, first made informal contact with the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) around 2021. At the time, Pakistan had no regulatory category for a foreign company selling internet access directly from orbit to Pakistani households. PTA's licensing structure was built for terrestrial telecom operators, while satellite matters fell to the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco), whose mandate was research rather than commercial licensing.
That changed with the National Space Policy, approved in December 2023, followed shortly after by rules creating the Pakistan Space Activities Regulatory Board (PSARB), the body now responsible for registering satellite operators before they can seek an operating license from PTA.
A temporary approval, then a halt
In March 2025, then-IT Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja announced that Starlink had been granted a temporary No Objection Certificate (NOC), describing it as a "whole of government" decision involving PTA, PSARB, the Cybercrime Agency and security agencies. It was framed at the time as the formal start of satellite internet in Pakistan.
That momentum did not carry through cleanly. By February 2026, government sources confirmed the approval process had been halted, citing concerns over data security, surveillance and geopolitical factors. Around the same time, PSARB disclosed that five companies had shown interest in Pakistan's satellite internet market: Starlink, Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology (SSST), OneWeb, Amazon's Project Kuiper, and the Canadian operator Telesat. Pakistan's Senate publicly criticized the delay that month, warning it risked discouraging international investment.
What the new licensing framework actually changed
PTA finalized a Fixed Satellite Services (FSS) licensing framework in April 2026. In practical terms, this replaced what had previously required multiple separate approvals with a single license category. Under the finalized terms, an FSS license is valid for 15 years, requires the operator to build a gateway earth station inside Pakistan within 18 months of being licensed, and requires domestic traffic to be routed through that in-country infrastructure. The license fee was reported at approximately $500,000, down from an earlier proposed $640,000.
The license does not cover everything satellite technology can do. It explicitly excludes direct-to-device connectivity, mobile satellite service, Earth-stations-in-motion, and broadcasting. That means, for now, an FSS license would not on its own bring satellite signal directly to a phone with no tower nearby, or to a moving vehicle or aircraft. PTA has separately opened public consultation on a distinct license for in-flight satellite connectivity, underlining that these are treated as separate regulatory tracks rather than one bundled approval.
The step that still hasn't been confirmed
This is where accounts diverge, and it's worth being precise about it. Some reports from April 2026 described Federal Cabinet approval of the FSS framework as already secured. But in a progress report to parliament later that same month, IT Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja described the framework as being in its "final phase," with Cabinet approval still expected rather than granted. As of August 2026, industry coverage was still describing the framework as heading toward Cabinet approval, not past it. Dawn's own reporting on September 7, 2026 likewise pointed to a final regulatory piece still outstanding.
Taken together, the weight of the reporting, including the minister's own words to parliament, indicates Cabinet approval has not been conclusively confirmed as of this writing. Readers should treat any claim that the framework has been fully approved with caution until PTA or the Cabinet Division confirms it directly.
What comes after approval, if and when it happens
Even once Cabinet sign-off is confirmed, a company cannot simply switch on service. Each operator must first register with PSARB, then apply for and receive an operating license from PTA, then complete its mandatory gateway earth station within the 18-month window. No operator has publicly confirmed a license has been issued under this framework, and no company has released official Pakistan-specific pricing or a launch date.
What this could mean for connectivity
Pakistan's broadband numbers look strong on paper. PTA data puts broadband subscriptions at roughly 164 million as of mid-2026, with broadband penetration above 60% of the population. But that figure counts subscriptions, many of them mobile data connections, rather than unique individual users. A separate estimate from DataReportal put the number of actual internet users at around 117 million, or roughly 46% of the population, as of late 2025, a meaningfully smaller figure.
That gap matters for satellite internet's pitch. The technology is being positioned primarily for remote and underserved regions, including parts of Balochistan and other areas where fiber and cellular towers are limited or absent, rather than as a replacement for existing mobile broadband in cities. Kazim Mujtaba, Consumer Division president at Jazz, has said satellite internet will help connectivity but is not a substitute for terrestrial mobile networks, pointing to Pakistan's affordability gap and uneven digital literacy as barriers satellite service alone won't solve.
What to watch next
The next confirmable milestone is a formal, on-record Cabinet approval of the FSS framework, something PTA or the IT Ministry would need to state directly rather than industry commentary inferring it. After that, the meaningful marker won't be another regulatory announcement but the first confirmed operating license actually issued to one of the five companies in line.
