Six companies have now formally registered in Pakistan to provide satellite-based internet, yet not one of them is allowed to sell a single connection. The registrations mark a real step forward for a service Pakistanis have been waiting years to see, but the paperwork that actually lets a company switch its service on is still some distance away, and no date has been given for when that might change.
The details came from the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, which submitted them to the Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat after a request from its chairman, Senator Rana Mahmood-ul-Hassan. The commission has also named Mubasher Saeed Saddozai, the divisional head of its Corporate Registry Department, as its focal person for the committee.
The six companies named in the report are Starlink Internet Services Pakistan, Spacesail Pakistan, Aether One, Flynautix, Galaxyspace Pakistan and Space P. Two of them, Starlink Internet Services Pakistan and Spacesail Pakistan, were registered earlier. The other four were incorporated after the Pakistan Space Activities Regulatory Board, known as PSARB, was established. The commission has also created a separate registration category for aerospace and space-related businesses, drawn up with PSARB, so the sector’s companies can be classified properly.
Registration, however, is only the first rung of a ladder. The commission was clear that completing the corporate registration process does not allow any of these companies to start offering commercial satellite internet services in Pakistan. Before that can happen, each company must meet PSARB requirements, including obtaining a no-objection certificate, and secure the necessary security clearances. Only then will the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority issue the relevant licences. Until then, the companies on the list remain registered in name only, unable to take orders or charge a customer.
The security checks are the most immediate obstacle. According to the report, security clearance for the foreign directors and shareholders of Starlink Internet Services Pakistan, Galaxyspace Pakistan and Spacesail Pakistan is still pending with the Ministry of Interior. That leaves three of the six companies unable to move ahead with licensing at all, however ready their technology may be.
One company occupies a different position altogether. Space P, a subsidiary of the National Command Authority, has been identified as exempt from the PSARB no-objection certificate requirement. The report, however, also refers to Space P as having submitted the certificate, a point the commission itself notes requires clarification. The confusion matters because it leaves open whether even the one company closest to clearing the first hurdle has actually done so.
Starlink, the best-known name on the list, illustrates how long the road has been. Its local company is a subsidiary of SpaceX, and it received provisional registration from PSARB back in March 2025. But its full, permanent PSARB registration remains incomplete, and until that is finished it cannot even apply for the Fixed Satellite Service licence from the PTA. There is no commercial service, no orders and no coverage in the country today.
The wider framework has, at least, been put in place. The federal cabinet approved the Fixed Satellite Services licensing framework in April 2026, ending a long regulatory holdup. Once granted, a licence is expected to last fifteen years and to require the operator to launch service within eighteen months. Other operators, including Amazon’s Project Kuiper and OneWeb, are technically eligible to apply. But no licence has actually been handed to anyone yet, and the queue cannot move until the security and PSARB steps ahead of it are cleared.
For people in Pakistan, the stakes are practical rather than abstract. Large parts of the country, from mountain valleys in the north to desert districts and flood-affected areas, remain poorly served by fibre and mobile networks, and satellite broadband promises a connection that does not depend on cables reaching a village or a tower surviving the next flood. Schools, hospitals, small businesses and remote offices could all benefit from a link that works wherever the sky is visible. The technology exists and is already working in many other countries. What is missing in Pakistan is permission, not capability.
Six registrations sound like a launch, but they are really a starting line. The companies must still clear the interior ministry, satisfy PSARB and then convince the PTA, and none of those steps has a published timetable. Until a licence is actually issued, nobody should pay anyone claiming to sell a Starlink connection or a satellite package in Pakistan, because no official Pakistan pricing has been announced and no company is authorised to take money for the service.
The picture, then, is one of slow but visible movement. The sector now has a regulator, a registration category, a licensing framework and six named companies, where a few years ago it had almost none of those things. What remains to be seen is whether the security clearances and PSARB approvals that have held the process up for so long can finally be cleared, and whether the first licence follows quickly once they are. Until that happens, satellite internet in Pakistan stays exactly where it has been for years, registered but not yet real.
