Starlink Among Six Satellite Internet Firms Registered in Pakistan — But Licences Still on Hold

By Hamza Faisal

Six satellite internet companies, including Elon Musk's Starlink, have registered in Pakistan — but none of them can switch on a single connection yet. Licences to sell satellite broadband remain stuck behind security clearances and regulatory approvals, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has told a Senate committee.

The six firms are Starlink, SpaceP, Galaxy Space, Aether One, Flanavotics and SpaceCell Pakistan, according to details the SECP shared in a report to the Senate standing committee. Four of them — Aether One, Flanavotics, Galaxy Space and SpaceP — registered after the Pakistan Space Activities Regulatory Board (PSARB) was set up, while Starlink and SpaceCell Pakistan have also registered as local companies. Some reports name the sixth firm as SpaceSail Pakistan, the local arm of China's Shanghai Spacecom.

The disclosure, first reported by TechJuice on November 7, answers a question that has lingered for years: how close is satellite internet to actually arriving in Pakistan? The answer, for now, is registered but not licensed — with no date given for when that might change.

Registration is only the first step

The SECP was blunt about what registration does and does not mean. "Company registration does not allow businesses to offer satellite internet services," the regulator said in its report to the committee, which is chaired by Senator Rana Mahmood-ul-Hassan.

Before any firm can sell a connection, it must clear a three-stage approvals chain. First, it needs a no-objection certificate (NOC) from PSARB, the body that oversees space activities. Then the Ministry of Interior must complete security checks on the company's foreign directors and shareholders. Only after both steps can the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) issue a commercial licence.

So far, only one company has even cleared the first hurdle: SpaceP, a subsidiary under the National Command Authority, is the only firm to have submitted its PSARB NOC. The other five have yet to do so, according to the SECP's report.

Security clearances are the bottleneck

The bigger hold-up is security vetting. Clearances for the foreign directors and shareholders of Starlink, Galaxy Space and SpaceCell Pakistan are still pending with the Ministry of Interior, leaving those firms unable to move ahead with licensing at all.

Starlink is the furthest along of the foreign entrants on paper. It is registered with the SECP as Starlink Internet Services Pakistan (Private) Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of SpaceX, and received provisional registration from PSARB in March 2025. But its full PSARB registration remains incomplete, and without it the company cannot even apply for the PTA licence it ultimately needs.

The PTA, for its part, has been building the framework for satellite services. Its Fixed Satellite Services licence framework would let low-Earth orbit operators such as Starlink, OneWeb and Amazon's Project Kuiper offer broadband directly to consumers, with 15-year non-exclusive licences tied to data-sovereignty and local gateway requirements. The framework is close to final, but the licensing queue cannot move until the security and PSARB steps are done.

What happens next

For Pakistani consumers, the practical effect is a waiting game. Satellite internet promises fast broadband in remote and underserved areas where fibre and mobile networks struggle to reach. Starlink's global availability map still lists Pakistan as "pending regulatory approval."

Until the Interior Ministry clears the pending security checks and the remaining firms secure their PSARB certificates, the six registered companies cannot commercially offer services — no matter how many of them are on the SECP's books. The Senate committee now has the full picture; whether the clearances move any faster is the next question.