Summary
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s telecom regulator has rolled out a new PTA SIM policy that forces all three mobile operators to follow one standard rule on balance expiry. The directive comes after regulators found two telcos ignoring the terms consumers were promised. Under the new rule, every prepaid recharge must stay usable for at least 180 days, and the change takes effect from October 1, 2026.
Background
For years, prepaid users in Pakistan have complained about losing money sitting in their mobile accounts. Some operators expired balances quickly, while others quietly blocked SIMs unless a minimum top-up was maintained even during an active connection.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, or PTA, opened a public consultation earlier this year to review these practices. It found that close to 97 percent of the country’s mobile subscribers use prepaid connections, meaning the issue touched nearly the entire market.
Feedback from consumers overwhelmingly favored longer, fairer validity periods. Industry players, however, pushed back, warning that unlimited validity could create financial and reporting complications for their businesses.
Details
According to the regulator’s official determination, the telecom sector regulator has directed all three telcos to implement a uniform approach to SIM expiry and recharge amounts, after establishing that two operators were not sticking to the terms they had promised customers. A senior PTA official confirmed that complaints had specifically named Zong and Telenor Pakistan, the latter now merged into PTCL.
Subscribers had told PTA that certain operators required a minimum balance to be maintained even while the SIM was active, and failing to do so led to the SIM being cancelled altogether. That practice is now barred.
Under the finalized PTA SIM policy, every operator must guarantee a minimum 180-day validity window on any recharge or balance amount, regardless of the sum topped up. If that balance expires before the subscriber uses it, it does not vanish. It will be automatically restored and made usable the moment the customer makes another recharge, as long as the SIM stays active.
Operators have also been explicitly told not to resort to unfair commercial tactics while rolling out the change, closing a loophole some feared could be used to soften the rule in practice.
Quotes
A PTA official explained that the complaints stemmed from operators demanding a certain balance be kept active even during the SIM’s live period, and failure to comply often meant the SIM was cancelled entirely.
Not every operator resisted the change. Jazz told the regulator it already runs a system where prepaid balance stays valid for as long as the SIM remains active, effectively already meeting the new standard. Telenor, meanwhile, opposed making validity indefinite but said it already restores lapsed balances once a customer recharges again.
Impact
The decision affects tens of millions of prepaid users across Pakistan, Azad Jammu & Kashmir, and Gilgit-Baltistan. Regulators specifically pointed to low-income and infrequent users as the group most hurt by the old system, since they were the most likely to lose small amounts of unused credit.
For everyday subscribers, the practical impact is simple: money paid for a recharge stops disappearing after a short window. Even users who travel abroad, keep a secondary SIM idle, or pause usage for personal reasons will no longer lose funds outright.
Operators, on the other hand, will need to update their billing systems and internal policies well before the October 1 deadline to stay compliant with the regulator’s determination.
Conclusion
With the effective date now set, all eyes turn to how Jazz, Zong, Ufone, and PTCL implement the change across their systems in the coming weeks. PTA has signaled it will continue monitoring compliance closely, given that this determination followed direct evidence of operators skirting existing consumer-protection rules.
Subscribers who continue to face balance-related issues after October 1 will be able to raise the matter directly with PTA through its consumer complaint channels, and further clarifications from the regulator are expected as the rollout approaches.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does SIM work without PTA registration?
A locally purchased SIM works normally, since PTA’s registration rules mainly concern devices rather than the SIM itself. However, if you’re using an imported or foreign phone, PTA’s device compliance system generally allows around 60 days of network use before the handset must be registered through the DIRBS system, after which it can be blocked from local networks. This is separate from the new SIM balance validity rule, which governs how long your recharge amount stays usable rather than how long the SIM itself can operate.
What are the new PTA tax updates for 2026?
PTA periodically revises the duties and taxes applied to imported mobile devices registered through DIRBS, with amounts varying depending on the phone’s declared value and whether it’s registered on a passport or a CNIC. These tax slabs are separate from the SIM balance policy discussed here and are published and updated on PTA’s official tax portal, so it’s worth checking the current table directly before registering a device, since rates are revised periodically and can change without much advance notice.
Why is my SIM blocked by PTA?
A SIM can be blocked for a handful of reasons that have nothing to do with the new balance policy: an unverified or lapsed CNIC linked to the SIM, exceeding the maximum number of SIMs allowed per CNIC, a formal ownership dispute, or a request lodged through PTA’s Lost & Stolen Device System after a phone was reported missing. If your number suddenly stops working, the fastest way to find out why is to contact your operator’s helpline or visit a franchise with your original CNIC for verification.
