The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has ordered Pakistan Telecom Mobile Limited (PTML) to immediately stop issuing new ONIC SIMs and eSIMs, activating new connections, taking new subscriptions, and carrying out related marketing and commercial activities. PTA has allowed PTML three months to migrate all existing ONIC customers to PTML while ensuring their data and records remain protected throughout the process, and the company must submit a compliance report to PTA within seven working days confirming that the ordered activities have been stopped along with an explanation of the steps taken to comply. The directive marks a significant regulatory intervention into a digital telecom product that has operated in the market for roughly two years since PTA first confirmed it was in active communication with PTML over ONIC’s launch plans back in December 2024.
In its eight page order, PTA said ONIC has separate branding, its own packages, a dedicated mobile app, and independent billing and customer management systems, along with direct customer operations, features that together make its business model similar to that of a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) rather than a standard product offered directly under PTML’s existing mobile licence. PTA also highlighted the role of Digital Technology Management Services (DTMS), a separate company that handles ONIC’s marketing, customer acquisition, Know Your Customer checks, SIM logistics, sales, and customer support. Under its agreement with PTML, DTMS is entitled to 55 percent of the relevant revenue during the first three years, an arrangement that gave a company outside PTML’s direct corporate structure substantial operational control and financial stake in ONIC’s day to day functioning, including access to subscriber related data.
PTA said ONIC can continue operating in Pakistan under one of two conditions going forward. PTML can either operate ONIC entirely as its own product or brand under its existing mobile operator licence, after removing the features that currently make it function as a separate MVNO, or it can obtain a formal MVNO licence and retain ONIC’s current operating structure as is. This ultimatum follows PTA’s recent move to open MVNO licensing in Pakistan in June, under the Federal Cabinet’s approved Policy Framework for Mobile Virtual Network Operator Services, giving PTML a clear regulatory pathway to formalize ONIC’s existing structure rather than dismantle it entirely, provided the company chooses to pursue that route within the required timeframe.
Until ONIC is regularized under either of these two paths, PTML remains fully responsible for its regulatory, technical, consumer protection, security, and national security obligations, meaning the parent operator cannot distance itself from ONIC’s compliance requirements simply because DTMS handles much of the product’s day to day customer facing operations. Existing ONIC customers will need to be migrated to PTML within the three month window regardless of which path PTML ultimately chooses for the product’s longer term structure. The order adds ONIC to a growing list of regulatory actions PTA has taken this year affecting telecom operators and their associated digital products, reflecting a broader push by the regulator to ensure that MVNO-like business models operating under existing mobile licences are brought into proper compliance with Pakistan’s newly established MVNO licensing framework.
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