With the approval from Pakistan Space Activities Regulatory Board (PSARB) American company Starlink- providing satellite based internet, is just one step short of launching its services in Pakistan, which will also give the muscle to the government to demand discontinuation of Starlink services to illegal users.
While the move has been welcomed by the Minister of Information Technology and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja, who said that the provisional registration of Starlink has been made on the instructions of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the cybercrime agency, security agencies and the PTA.
Starlkink now needs an operating licence from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to commence its business.
PTA will reach agreement over key issues including the fee payment and other licensing requirements that could be completed by the end of April.
All relevant authorities and agencies have already held discussions with the Starlink team but mutual agreement over key point related to shutdown of services in any area due to security requirements has to be reached.
While not officially recognised Starlink services were being used at the region along Afghanistan border as this technology needs no ground based infrastructure and the satellite beams can be downloaded directly by the user through a small equipments.
A senior official in the government confided that it was feared that the terrorist groups were using internet through such means, using equipments registered in the name of users in Middle East and smuggled into the country.
Meanwhile the Starlink owner Elon Musk had confirmed at the social media platform X in January this year that Starlink had applied for an operating licence in Pakistan.
In his regard the PSARB had commenced pilot testing in Pakistan in February this year in Kamra city situated at the border between Punjab and the KhyberPakhtunkhwa provinces.
Starlink Internet Services (Pvt) Ltd, is a subsidiary of SpaceX and as part of the security requirements pilot testing of Starlink’s satellite-to-cell service was conducted by a joint team of experts belonging to the army, airforce, ministry of IT, PTA, frequency allocation board and others to determine the possible digital threats to infrastructure and other data storage centres from the satellite based internet beamed directly to the users.
The key importance of low earth orbit (LEO) satellite based internet service is that it provides connectivity to the remote regions and hostile terrains where providing telephony and internet through traditional mode is very difficult.
Pakistan introduced the National Satellite Policy in 2023 and the PSARB was established in 2024 to regulate satellite-based telecommunications.
Apart from the US based Starlink, a Chinese company Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology (SSST) too is vying to enter Pakistan and the officials of the company have held meetings with the senior official as well as the minister of IT & telecom, however the SSST has yet to formally commence its registration process.
