Load Shedding Is Destroying Pakistan’s Mobile Network, The Government Is Finally Doing Something About It

Pakistan’s telecom tower crisis due to load shedding has finally triggered a formal government response. The Ministry of IT and Telecom has written a formal letter to power distribution companies across Pakistan, directing them to prioritise express feeders for critical telecom infrastructure, a direct intervention designed to stop load shedding from knocking mobile towers offline and degrading service quality for millions of users.

The move follows recommendations submitted by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to the Ministry of IT, which identified power outages and surging fuel costs as the two most immediate threats to telecom network stability in the country. The Ministry has now acted on those recommendations, taking the fight directly to the power sector.

Why This Is Happening Now

Pakistan’s telecom towers operate on a simple but fragile power dependency: when the grid is available, towers run on electricity. When it is not, which in many parts of Pakistan means several hours every day, towers switch to diesel generators.

That backup model has been under simultaneous pressure from two directions. Load shedding has increased the hours towers must run on generators. The Iran war-driven fuel crisis has made diesel significantly more expensive and, in some areas, difficult to source at all. The result is a compounding crisis: more generator hours required, at higher cost, with less fuel available.

As reported recently, over 20,000 towers across Pakistan have been affected by diesel unavailability, disrupting internet services for approximately 60 million subscribers. Mobile service quality has deteriorated visibly, with call drops, data speed reductions, and connectivity gaps becoming more frequent across the country.

The PTA identified the structural solution: stop treating telecom towers like ordinary electricity consumers subject to load shedding schedules. Treat them like essential infrastructure, because they are.

What the Ministry of IT Is Demanding

The Ministry’s letter to power distribution companies carries two core demands, both based directly on PTA recommendations.

First: Telecom towers must be connected to express feeders, dedicated power lines that are exempt from load shedding schedules and maintain a continuous supply even when surrounding areas are cut off. Express feeders are already used for hospitals, water pumping stations, and other critical infrastructure in Pakistan. The Ministry is now directing power companies to extend that same priority status to telecom towers.

Second: The PTA has recommended shifting the telecom sector from commercial to industrial electricity tariffs. Commercial tariffs, currently applied to most telecom operators, are significantly higher than industrial rates. Moving telecom companies to the industrial tariff would reduce their electricity costs materially, easing the financial pressure that has been forcing operators to cut corners on generator fuel and maintenance.

The Broader Context: A Network Under Siege

This intervention does not exist in isolation. It is the latest in a series of escalating responses to a telecom infrastructure crisis that has been building for months and was dramatically accelerated by the Iran war’s impact on global fuel supply chains.

The diesel shortage that has knocked tens of thousands of towers offline is a symptom of a deeper structural vulnerability: Pakistan’s telecom network was designed around the assumption of affordable, available diesel as a reliable backup power source. That assumption no longer holds.

The Ministry’s intervention addresses the grid side of that equation, reducing tower dependence on diesel by ensuring more consistent grid supply through express feeders. It does not, however, solve the underlying diesel dependency for areas where grid supply remains genuinely unreliable. For those areas, the longer-term answer lies in transitioning towers to solar, hybrid, or battery-based power systems, a transition that requires capital investment and regulatory incentives that have yet to be formally announced.

What This Means for Consumers

If power distribution companies comply with the Ministry’s directive, and compliance is not guaranteed given the chronic capacity constraints in Pakistan’s power sector, the most immediate benefit for consumers would be reduced call drops and more stable mobile data connections during load shedding hours.

For the 60 million subscribers currently experiencing internet disruptions due to tower outages, even partial restoration of express feeder connectivity to the most affected towers would represent a meaningful improvement in daily connectivity.

For Pakistan’s broader digital economy, including the IT export sector that earned nearly $3 billion in eight months of FY26, stable telecom infrastructure is not a convenience. It is a prerequisite.

A Letter Is Not a Solution, But It Is a Start

It is important to be clear about what the Ministry’s letter does and does not accomplish. It is a directive, not a policy change, not a budget allocation, and not an infrastructure upgrade. Power distribution companies in Pakistan operate under their own financial and capacity constraints, and directing them to prioritise express feeders for telecom towers requires both the political will to enforce compliance and the technical capacity to actually deliver it.

But as a signal of institutional recognition, that telecom infrastructure is essential national infrastructure deserving the same power priority as hospitals and water stations; it is significant. Pakistan’s regulatory and policy framework has been slow to catch up with the operational reality of how dependent the country’s economy and daily life have become on mobile connectivity.

The Ministry’s intervention suggests that gap is finally being acknowledged at the level where decisions can actually be made.