For most Pakistanis, a mobile phone is not a luxury. It is a lifeline. It is how a daily-wage worker in Karachi calls his family in Mirpur Khas. It is how a student in Quetta attends an online class. It is how a freelancer in Lahore transfers money through JazzCash and bids for international projects. It is how 200 million people stay connected in a country where fixed-line broadband barely exists outside major cities.
Which is why the question now hanging over Pakistan’s telecom sector is not just an economic one. It is a social one: what happens to digital inclusion, livelihoods, and everyday connectivity when the one thing that was still affordable — mobile data and calling packages — stops being affordable?
That question has just become very real. Two of Pakistan’s major telecom operators have formally asked the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to approve a 10 to 15 percent increase in mobile and internet package prices. The PTA is reviewing the request. A decision could come any day now. And if it goes through, tens of millions of Pakistanis will feel the impact on their very next recharge.
What the Telcos Are Asking For — And Why
Two major telecom companies in Pakistan have submitted a request to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority seeking an increase in mobile and internet tariffs. Sources say the sharp rise in diesel prices is affecting the telecom industry at large, as operators heavily rely on diesel-powered generators to maintain connectivity at telecom sites, particularly in remote and off-grid areas. Frequent load shedding and power shortages across the country have further increased dependence on backup generators, significantly raising operational expenses. EBC Financial Group
In their communication to the PTA, telecom operators stated that escalating fuel costs are straining their ability to maintain service quality and ensure uninterrupted operations. They warned that without a revision in tariffs, sustaining reliable services — especially in areas facing severe energy shortages — would become increasingly difficult. EBC Financial Group
PTA is currently reviewing the request, and a 10 to 15 percent increase in telecom tariffs is now on the table, pending regulatory approval. ABN AMRO Bank
The operators have also flagged a second wave of pressure coming: they noted that any increase in electricity tariffs under the Fuel Price Adjustment mechanism would add additional financial pressure on operations — meaning even if diesel prices stabilise, rising electricity bills could push operational costs even higher. EBC Financial Group
The Diesel Crisis: The Engine Room of Pakistan’s Telecom Networks
To understand why a global oil shock is threatening the price of your weekly internet bundle, you need to understand just how deeply diesel-dependent Pakistan’s telecom infrastructure actually is.
Pakistan’s cell towers — every single one that keeps your call from dropping and your video from buffering — runs on electricity. In a country where power outages can last 8 to 12 hours a day in some areas, that electricity frequently comes not from the national grid, but from diesel generators humming away 24 hours a day at thousands of tower sites across the country.
The telecom sector, which relies heavily on continuous energy supply, has been affected by sharp increases in fuel costs. Rising diesel costs in Pakistan have further contributed to increased expenses for backup power systems used at telecom sites. Morningstar
The scale of this dependency is extraordinary. According to the Alternative Energy Development Board, mobile operators are Pakistan’s single largest diesel fuel consumers — burning 1.2 billion litres of diesel per year just to keep cell towers running.
Before the recent escalation in Middle East tensions, diesel prices in Pakistan stood at Rs. 270 per litre. They have now surged to Rs. 385 per litre, with earlier spikes reaching as high as Rs. 520 per litre in early April. This sharp increase has already forced transporters, railways, and other sectors to revise fares. ABN AMRO Bank
That is a near-doubling of diesel costs at their worst point, and still a 43 percent increase even at today’s more “moderate” rate of Rs. 385. For companies burning over a billion litres of diesel annually, the math is brutal and unavoidable.
This Is Not the First Time
Here is what makes the current situation feel particularly exhausting for Pakistani mobile users: this is not the first time. Not even close.
Over the past several years, telecom package prices in Pakistan have increased repeatedly — and the regulatory framework itself acknowledges that many of those increases were justified by economic pressures.
The PTA has previously termed increases in retail tariffs of mobile companies justified, citing higher financial costs due to inflation, fuel price increases, and devaluation of the rupee. “Since March 2021 till May 2024, fuel prices have increased by 158 percent, inflation increased by 83 percent, while the rupee depreciated against the dollar by 44 percent. Moreover, the policy rate increased by 214 percent, increasing the financial cost of operators,” PTA stated in an official reply to a parliamentary motion. Hamariweb
So the question is not just whether a price hike is happening now — it is how many times Pakistanis can be expected to absorb the full cost of macroeconomic shocks through their phone bills before connectivity becomes something only the financially comfortable can afford.
The Regulatory Framework: Some Consumer Protections in Place
To its credit, the PTA has been paying attention. Months before this latest crisis, the regulator had already moved to stop one of the most frustrating consumer experiences in Pakistani telecom: prices being changed every single month with no warning.
The PTA has formally prohibited telecom companies from increasing the prices of mobile packages on a monthly basis. Instead, companies will only be permitted to adjust their tariffs once every three months. This change has been introduced to prevent frequent price fluctuations and to make mobile services more predictable and affordable for consumers. ING THINK
Telecom companies are now required to obtain PTA approval before launching any new packages or raising rates. Under the updated rules, operators can no longer increase package prices on a monthly basis. Under the Mobile Tariff Regulations 2025, operators can raise package rates by only 10 to 20 percent compared to the previous year. ABN AMRO
Under standard regulatory practice, operators may revise tariffs periodically, typically every three months. However, in exceptional circumstances, companies can request early adjustments citing financial pressures. advfn
The current request is precisely one of those “exceptional circumstances” requests — coming ahead of the standard quarterly cycle, citing the extraordinary fuel crisis triggered by the Middle East conflict. Whether PTA treats it as genuinely exceptional — or as yet another attempt by operators to pass on costs the moment an opportunity presents itself — will determine the outcome.
Pakistan’s Dirty Secret: The World’s Lowest ARPU Problem
To understand why this debate is so much more complicated than it looks, you need to know about one number: ARPU — Average Revenue Per User. It is how much revenue a telecom operator earns per subscriber per month. And Pakistan’s number is both its biggest problem and, paradoxically, its biggest selling point.
Pakistan’s telecommunication sector presents a unique paradox. While boasting over 193 million mobile subscribers — representing a penetration rate of 88 percent — the industry grapples with the world’s lowest Average Revenue Per User at approximately $0.80 per month. This figure stands in stark contrast to global averages: developing markets typically see ARPUs ranging from $3 to $5, while developed markets command $15 to $50 per user monthly. Business Recorder
Pakistan’s mobile ARPU of approximately $1.10 per month is far below the global average of $8.20. A quarter of mobile customers still do not use mobile broadband at all despite 4G being available for over a decade, raising the question of whether the country’s connectivity bottleneck is primarily a spectrum problem or a deeper issue of affordability and digital literacy. Exchange Rates UK
The low ARPU is not accidental. It is the direct result of years of price competition between operators, high taxation that suppresses operator profitability without benefiting consumers, and a population where average monthly incomes simply cannot support higher mobile bills.
The telecom sector faces one of the highest taxation regimes globally, with operators bearing up to 34 percent in various taxes and levies. In comparison, neighbouring India’s telecom sector faces an average taxation of 18 percent, while Bangladesh stands at 21.75 percent. Currency depreciation has dealt another significant blow to operators’ financial health — the Pakistani Rupee has depreciated by over 60 percent against the USD in the last five years, severely impacting operators who manage substantial dollar-denominated costs. Business Recorder
So here is the bind: operators genuinely cannot sustain themselves on Rs. 0.80 per user per month when diesel costs Rs. 385 per litre, electricity bills are rising, and every imported piece of network equipment costs significantly more in rupee terms than it did five years ago. But raising prices in a country where average monthly income is already stretched thin risks pushing millions of users off the digital grid entirely.
5G Just Launched — And Prices Were Always Going to Rise
There is one more dimension to this story that is easy to miss: Pakistan’s telecom sector is in the middle of its most significant infrastructure investment in history, and that investment has to be paid for somehow.
Pakistan successfully concluded its long-awaited IMT spectrum auction on March 10, 2026, selling 480 MHz of spectrum across multiple bands and generating $507 million in revenue for the government. Jazz emerged as the largest buyer, acquiring 190 MHz for $239 million. Ufone secured 180 MHz, and Zong acquired 110 MHz. Exchange Rates UK
Jazz, Zong, and Ufone have all committed to building out 5G networks. Zong has already launched in 21 cities. Jazz and Ufone are rolling out. The commercial launch of 5G was one of the biggest tech stories in Pakistan’s recent history. But building a 5G network requires billions of rupees in investment — new towers, new equipment, fiber backhaul, spectrum license fees — all of which need to be recovered through subscriber revenue.
With the current ARPU of $0.80, recovering 5G infrastructure investments could take 12 to 15 years — compared to the industry standard of 5 to 7 years. Business Recorder
Pakistan’s operators could offer basic 4G at existing rates while introducing premium 5G tiers in urban centres where purchasing power and willingness to pay are higher. The government’s abolition of Right of Way charges for fibre deployment — reduced from Rs. 36,000 per kilometre to zero — removes a significant barrier to the backhaul buildout. Exchange Rates UK
The timing is not coincidental. The fuel crisis has accelerated and intensified the pressure for tariff increases that was always going to come as part of the 5G transition. Even without the Middle East conflict, Pakistani telecom packages were headed higher. The crisis has just made the argument for immediate action far more urgent and far harder for regulators to refuse.
Who Gets Hurt the Most?
If PTA approves the tariff increase, the impact will not fall evenly across Pakistani society. It never does.
For middle-class Pakistanis with postpaid accounts and stable incomes, a 10 to 15 percent increase is inconvenient. For a prepaid user in a lower-income household — someone buying a Rs. 100 weekly bundle that becomes Rs. 115 — the proportional impact on a weekly budget is meaningfully different.
For students who depend on mobile data for online courses, for freelancers who use mobile internet as their primary work tool, for small business owners who communicate with customers almost exclusively through WhatsApp and phone calls — the affordability question is not abstract. It is the difference between being connected and being cut off.
Pakistan’s telecom penetration story — 200 million subscribers, 150 million broadband users, digital payments accelerating — has been built on cheap connectivity. Data and internet services now represent 51.15 percent of 2025 telecom revenue, and average monthly data use climbed to 4.3 GB per subscriber in FY 2024-25, a 68.9 percent jump year over year. Mobile banking transactions hit 1.69 billion during the same period. Forex.pk
All of that digital growth has been made possible by the fact that a week of mobile internet cost less than a cup of tea at a roadside dhaba. If that equation changes materially, the growth story changes too.
What PTA Should — and Shouldn’t — Do
The PTA is now sitting with a genuinely difficult decision, and the right answer is not simply to approve or reject the request.
A blanket 10 to 15 percent increase applied uniformly across all package tiers would be the bluntest possible tool — hitting the cheapest prepaid packages hardest in proportional terms, while barely affecting premium postpaid users. A smarter regulatory approach would allow modest increases on mid-range and premium packages, while protecting the cheapest entry-level bundles that are the primary connectivity option for lower-income users.
At the same time, PTA must use this moment to push operators on a question that has been largely ignored: why, after years of profitable operations, have Pakistan’s major telecom companies still not invested meaningfully in solar-powered tower infrastructure that would dramatically reduce their diesel dependency?
Analysts warn that unless telecom companies urgently invest in more robust and sustainable systems such as solar-powered towers and extended battery capacity, Pakistan’s digital ecosystem will remain vulnerable to power disruptions — and to exactly the kind of global fuel price shock that is hitting the sector right now. Business Recorder
PTA has indicated that any price adjustments should generally remain within a reasonable range compared to the previous year’s tariffs, and that the new Mobile Tariff Regulations 2025 impose stricter oversight on telecom operators. ABN AMRO
That framework gives the regulator room to approve a partial increase while attaching conditions — demanding concrete timelines for renewable energy adoption at tower sites, improved service quality commitments, and protections for the most affordable consumer tiers.
The Bottom Line
Pakistan’s telecom packages becoming more expensive is not a matter of if. It is a matter of when, by how much, and whether the increase is designed in a way that protects the most vulnerable users or simply passes the full burden of a global crisis onto people who are already paying more for everything from petrol to atta to cooking gas.
The Middle East conflict and its fuel price shock have accelerated a reckoning that was always coming for Pakistan’s telecom sector — a sector that has been operating on razor-thin margins, charging some of the cheapest mobile rates in the world, and running on diesel generators in a country where electricity supply remains unreliable.
The question for PTA is not whether to allow the sector to adjust. It has to. The question is whether it will use this moment to force the structural reforms — renewable energy adoption, efficiency improvements, tiered pricing protections — that could ensure the next global fuel shock doesn’t produce the same crisis all over again.
Because if it doesn’t, Pakistanis will find themselves having this same conversation again in two years. And the packages will be even less affordable then.
Pakistan Telecom Package Crisis: Key Facts
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Proposed tariff increase | 10–15% |
| Diesel price before Middle East war | Rs. 270/litre |
| Current diesel price | Rs. 385/litre |
| Peak diesel price (early April 2026) | Rs. 520/litre |
| Annual diesel consumed by telcos | 1.2 billion litres |
| Pakistan ARPU | ~$1.10/month |
| Global average ARPU | ~$8.20/month |
| Pakistan mobile subscribers | 200+ million |
| Telecom taxation rate | Up to 34% |
| Max annual tariff increase allowed (MTR 2025) | 10–20% vs prior year |
| Price revision frequency | Once per quarter (max) |
| PTA decision expected | Within days |
Stay updated on Pakistan’s telecom sector, economy, and digital trends at FQF World.
External Sources: ProPakistani | TechJuice | PhoneWorld Pakistan | Daily Pakistan | The Express Tribune | Pakistan Telecommunication Authority