Elon Musk awaits govt approval to launch Starlink in Pakistan

In a major development, SpaceX chief Elon Musk has formally confirmed that he is awaiting for Islamabad’s approval to launch Starlink, the satellite internet company owned by him, in Pakistan.

Taking to his official X handle on Saturday, Musk revealed: “We are waiting for approval from the government.”

He made the remarks during a conversation with Pakistani social media activist Sanam Jamali as the country has been experiencing internet-related issues for couple of months.

Jamali urged Musk to expedite Starlink’s launch in Pakistan, saying: “Millions await the connectivity, education and opportunities Starlink could offer.”        

Amid internet disruptions faced by millions of users across the country, Minister of State for IT and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja last month said that the Pakistan was in contact with Starlink to bring its services to the country.

“We are in talks with Starlink to bring them to Pakistan,” Khawaja said during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee meeting on IT and Telecommunication.

The country has been grappling with slow internet since last year, with the government consistently blaming submarine cable faults, while reports hint at possible experimentation with a “firewall” by authorities.

Earlier today, the IT minister said that efforts were underway to reroute an additional 200 gigabytes per second shortly.

In a statement, the IT minister said that 630 gigabytes per second of the affected traffic had already been shifted to an alternative route.

“The disruption in internet services due to a fault in the AAE-1 submarine cable affected 1,000 gigabytes per second of data traffic,” she confirmed.

Her remarks came hours after the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said that there was no degradation of internet services across the country anymore after the issue was addressed through the incorporation of a temporary bandwidth into the system.