Six firms are registered for satellite internet in Pakistan, but only one has filed the permit that matters
SECP told a Senate committee that six satellite companies hold local registrations. One has submitted its space regulator permit, three await security clearance, and the telecom regulator has licensed none.
Pakistan has six companies registered to sell satellite internet and none that is allowed to. The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan listed them in a reply to the chairman of a Senate standing committee, and the figures show how little of the approval chain has moved. All six hold SECP registrations. One, SpaceP, has submitted the no objection certificate that the Pakistan Space Activities Regulatory Board, known as PSARB, requires. Starlink, Galaxy Space and Space Cell Pakistan have foreign directors or shareholders still waiting for security clearance from the Ministry of Interior. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has issued no licence.
The SECP's reply made the limit plain: registration alone does not allow a business to launch commercial satellite internet in Pakistan. The six are Aether One, Flynawtics, Galaxy Space, SpaceP, Starlink and Space Cell Pakistan.
The four gates, counted
A company has to pass four gates before it can sell service. It registers with the SECP, files a no objection certificate with PSARB, clears Interior Ministry security vetting where it has foreign owners, and only then receives a PTA licence. Counting the six firms through the chain gives a funnel. Six pass the first gate. One has filed for the second. Three wait at the third. None has reached the fourth. The first gate costs little and is open to anyone with a company structure, which is why it fills first.
The early gate moves faster than the late ones. In a written reply on 24 August, a minister said Starlink was the only operator that had completed SECP registration, and that others, including OneWeb, Shanghai Spacecom and Sateliot, should begin theirs. In the 75 days since, the registered count has risen to six, but only one firm has filed for the second gate. The same reply said the PTA's framework for fixed satellite services was at an advanced stage and would go to the federal cabinet soon. It has not been issued.
There is a further gap at the PTA gate itself. In September the PTA told a Senate committee that no Starlink licence application was pending before it, and that low orbit operators must first meet regulatory and security requirements. The sequence explains why: the PTA licence comes last, so an operator has little reason to apply until the earlier steps are done.
What the vetting is about
The clearance of foreign directors is where satellite internet differs from a mobile launch. A low orbit service sends each user's traffic up to a satellite and back down to a gateway earth station, so the operator controls where data enters Pakistan's networks. A regulator in Islamabad has reason to ask who owns the operator before it asks about spectrum. In September, Starlink's Pakistan director said the security agencies' requirements were very strict and involved extensive vetting of foreign directors, and that the delay was hurting connectivity in underserved areas, including schools and hospitals.
The unknown is the clock. Neither the Interior Ministry nor PSARB has published a deadline for either step. A company that files a certificate today cannot say when PSARB will act, and a firm with foreign owners cannot say when the Interior review will end. An investor can price a licence fee or a tariff but cannot price an open ended wait.
What a licence would and would not deliver
Bangladesh offers a comparison, with the caveat that its rules differ. Its regulator, the BTRC, granted Starlink a licence on 29 April 2025, and the service was announced as launched on 20 May, 21 days later. Plans started at Tk4,200 and Tk6,000 a month, with a one time installation fee of Tk47,000. That fee equals about 11 months of the cheaper plan, or 7.8 months of the dearer one: Tk47,000 divided by Tk4,200 is 11.2, and divided by Tk6,000 is 7.8. A quick licence did not make the product cheap to start.
The PTA itself said in April, when it introduced the fixed satellite services framework, that high costs remain the biggest challenge and that satellite links are more common for enterprise and backhaul use than for mass consumer rollout. The first Pakistani customers are therefore likely to be banks, hospitals, schools and mobile operators needing links to remote towers, with households a later and smaller group.
The people who lose most from the delay are the businesses and rural institutions that need connectivity where fibre and towers do not reach, and the companies that have paid for registration without knowing when they can earn from it. The next dated step is the federal cabinet's decision on the PTA framework, which the government first called imminent on 24 August and which has no scheduled date.
