Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja says the rules for satellite internet in Pakistan are nearly finished. Consultations on the Fixed Satellite Services framework, which covers internet delivered by satellite to a fixed dish, are complete and the framework is to be finalised shortly. She set out the update at the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity symposium, a meeting of the region's telecom authorities. In the same briefing she set a target for digital infrastructure in Pakistan: at least 60% of mobile towers should be connected to optical fibre.
What the new framework is meant to do
Khawaja said the government wants rules that make it easier for companies to invest in the sector. She did not name any operator. No launch date and no price for satellite internet in Pakistan were announced.
The minister described wider connectivity as necessary for education, healthcare, disaster management, economic activity and national security. Until the framework is issued, households have no official timetable for when a service would start or what it would cost.
Fibre on towers, and the 5G link
Tower fiberisation means running optical fibre to a mobile site so it can carry heavy traffic. The share of towers linked this way has risen from below 15% to slightly over 19%. The government says the share must reach at least 60% if the country is to have reliable, high-capacity backhaul (the main pipe from the tower into the wider network) and if 5G is to work in practice. Authorities moved to 5G after auctioning 480 MHz of spectrum in March 2026.
Three submarine cables have landed in the past two and a half years, and work on other international routes is still going on. The Universal Service Fund, the public scheme that pays for telecom access in harder-to-reach areas, has laid more than 17,000 kilometres of optical fibre. Premises that a fibre broadband line can already pass have increased from fewer than three million in 2024 to more than five million.
Figures included with the update, and credited to recent reports, say Pakistan cut the gender gap in mobile internet use from 38% to 8% over the past two years, described as the fastest progress of its kind globally. The update also gives the share of the Asia-Pacific population without internet as 48%, and the number of people still offline worldwide as 2.2 billion.
Village providers and subsidies without a phone
Class Value Added Services licences allow rural residents to become internet service providers and sell connections in communities that larger networks still serve poorly. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif reviews the National Connectivity Plan every fortnight so the various projects stay on one schedule.
A technology-based system has also been used to pay fuel subsidies to more than 10 million people. Recipients did not need a smartphone. Officials treated that reach as a reason to see connectivity as basic infrastructure, alongside the satellite rules and the tower-fibre target.
Aasan alfaaz mein
Hakoomat satellite internet ka framework jald final kar rahi hai, lekin abhi kisi company ka naam, qeemat ya launch date nahi batayi. Mobile towers par fibre abhi 19 percent se thora oopar hai, aur isay kam az kam 60 percent tak le jana hai taake 5G behtar chale. Ghar tak fibre ki rasai 2024 mein tees lakh se kam thi, aur ab pachas lakh se zyada ho gayi hai. Gaon mein log khaas licence le kar apne ilaqe ke internet provider ban sakte hain.
