Running sensors on a farm, in a factory or across a campus in Pakistan may soon mean registering with PTA. The regulator has put out draft IoT-LPWAN Licensing Regulations 2026, with a different fee for each kind of user.
The draft sets the frequencies at 433.05 to 434.79 MHz and 920 to 925 MHz, with a one-watt power cap. Operation is secondary, so it must not interfere with other services and gets no protection from them. The Frequency Allocation Board can look at exclusive assignments case by case.
The biggest charge falls on companies that sell IoT connectivity: Rs. 100,000 for a five-year licence, plus Rs. 5,000 for processing that is not refunded. The earlier district-level arrangement cost Rs. 300,000, so small operators and startups would pay a third as much.
Owners of a private network on one site pay far less. They need no licence, only a five-year registration at Rs. 10,000 plus Rs. 5,000 processing, and the network can serve nobody outside the premises. Firms that only write software or analytics for IoT data register for five years at Rs. 10,000. Anyone trialling an idea can take a one-year sandbox registration for Rs. 2,000 plus Rs. 1,000 processing.
Jazz, Zong and the merged Ufone-Telenor are left out, since their current spectrum licences already cover IoT services. Devices on shared short-range and ultra-wideband bands are exempt, and importers need no separate licence beyond type approval.
Once licensed, an operator has a year to start service and obtain a commencement certificate, with one six-month extension possible. Quarterly reports on active connections and gateways are required, split by district for commercial licensees.
One condition carries real weight. An IoT operator that hooks its backend into an unlicensed Local Access Provider loses its licence or registration automatically, and that applies to satellite links too. Licensed providers are the only permitted route. Separately, PTA keeps the power to restrict or suspend a service when national security or public safety is at stake.
PTA first put out a draft licensing framework for terrestrial IoT services in July 2021, and this is the newest step in that work. Ten application areas are named, among them smart cities, utilities, agriculture, logistics, healthcare and public safety. The 23 companies PTA licensed in April 2026 would keep their licences if they comply within 90 days of the rules taking effect. As a draft, the fees and conditions can still change after industry comments.
