The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has proposed a one-year trial window for companies and organisations that want to test Internet of Things technology in Pakistan before a full commercial launch. The idea is simple: give innovators a controlled space to try their devices and networks, learn what works, and only then move towards offering services to the public.
The proposal sits inside the regulator’s draft Internet of Things and Low Power Wide Area Networks Licensing Regulations 2026, which set out how connected devices and the low-power networks carrying their data should be licensed and supervised. The trial category is its most accessible part, aimed at research and testing rather than companies selling services.
Under the draft, the trial registration would remain valid for one year and cover networks set up within a single premises for testing and research. A university department testing soil sensors, a factory trialling machine monitors, or a startup checking its tracking devices would all fit the description. Applicants would pay an initial fee of Rs. 2,000 plus a non-refundable processing fee of Rs. 1,000, submitting technical details and documents through the PTA’s online system.
The fees are deliberately low. The trial is meant to cut the cost of experimenting, so small firms, researchers and students are not priced out before they have even switched a device on. It is a sandbox in the practical sense: a bounded, time-limited space where new technology can be tried without the cost of a commercial licence, while the regulator watches.
The trial window is only one of four categories. The main commercial tier is a five-year IoT-LPWAN licence for companies providing Internet of Things services to others over the designated bands, at Rs. 100,000 plus a Rs. 5,000 processing fee. Private networks, such as a farm or factory running its own network for its own use, would register for five years at Rs. 10,000 plus Rs. 5,000. A third category covers software firms building applications on data from connected devices, without providing connectivity themselves, also at Rs. 10,000 plus Rs. 5,000 for five years.
That third category reaches further than traditional telecom regulation, which has mostly concerned the companies that own and run networks. The new rules would bring in the software firms sitting on top of those networks, where much of the value, and much of the data, actually sits. The large mobile operators are left out, because their existing spectrum licences already cover Internet of Things services.
The draft also sets the technical ground rules. The networks would operate in two frequency bands, 433.05 to 434.79 megahertz and 920 to 925 megahertz, with transmission power capped at one watt, and on a secondary, non-interference basis, meaning they must not disturb other services and cannot demand protection from interference. The regulations name ten areas where these networks are expected to be used, from smart cities and agriculture to healthcare and public safety.
One condition will matter to anyone connecting devices by satellite rather than by cable. Operators would have to route all backend traffic, including satellite connections, through a Local Access Provider licensed by the PTA, and name the licensed provider linking their network gateways with their central servers. Using an unlicensed provider could mean cancellation of the licence or registration.
That condition arrives as satellite internet is very much in the news in Pakistan. Six companies, including Starlink, have completed corporate registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, but registration alone does not allow any of them to sell a connection. They still need security clearance, a no-objection certificate from the Pakistan Space Activities Regulatory Board, and finally an operating licence from the PTA. Until that chain is complete, satellite-linked Internet of Things deployments will face the same waiting game as satellite broadband.
The draft did not appear out of nowhere. The PTA first circulated a draft framework for terrestrial Internet of Things services in July 2021, and later revised its broader IoT framework. In April this year, the authority issued licences to 23 companies under the previous framework. Those licences would carry over under the new rules, provided the operators meet the updated requirements within 90 days.
It is important to be clear about the status of all of this. The regulations are a draft, circulated for public consultation on 5 November, with comments accepted until 20 November, addressed to the Director Satellite. Nothing in them is final yet, and the fees and conditions can still change once the industry has had its say. The regulations would take effect only after publication in the official gazette.
If the framework survives consultation roughly as drafted, the effect should be to make starting cheaper and simpler. A student team or small company will be able to test a network for a year for a few thousand rupees instead of committing to a commercial licence first. Larger operators get a clear fee and a five-year horizon, and software firms will know where they stand. The cost of that clarity is closer supervision: gateways registered, backend links through a licensed provider, and operators answerable if they step outside the rules.
