Six satellite internet companies, Starlink among them, are now registered in Pakistan, but none of them can sell a connection yet. Registering as a company is only the first step, and the corporate regulator has told a Senate committee as much.
The SECP laid out the position in a report to a Senate standing committee, after the committee’s chairman, Rana Mahmood-ul-Hassan, wrote to it asking. Four firms registered after the Pakistan Space Activities Regulatory Board (PSARB) was set up: Aether One, Galaxy Space, SpaceP and a fourth company. Starlink and SpaceCell Pakistan had registered as local companies already.
Each firm now needs a No Objection Certificate from PSARB, and only SpaceP has submitted one so far. The second hold-up is security vetting: the Interior Ministry has not cleared the foreign directors and shareholders of Starlink, Galaxy Space and SpaceCell Pakistan. The PTA issues a licence only after both are done. SpaceP is the furthest along on paper, with the other five yet to file a certificate, though the report does not say whether SpaceP has applied to the PTA.
That is the same chain of approvals that has held Starlink back for years. Starlink’s launch was already stuck on licensing in January 2025, and security vetting remains the open item. The SECP report does not give a date for any firm to start service.
For anyone hoping to switch to a dish soon, the SECP’s message is that no firm can offer service until its licence is issued. Which one gets there first depends on whose clearances arrive earliest.
