AS9557 PKTELECOM-AS-PK Paknet Limited Merged into PTCL

AS9557 (PKTELECOM-AS-PK) carries a registry name that tells its own story: "Paknet Limited Merged into PTCL". Paknet was the internet-services subsidiary launched by Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), the country's incumbent fixed-line operator. The Paknet brand was wound down and absorbed back into PTCL, but the AS and the address space it holds are still announced under the old name.

What it's used for

The evidence shows customer access space inside a much larger incumbent's network. RIS sees 28 IPv4 prefixes carrying 15,616 addresses, with no IPv6. The blocks are a mix of /20s, /21s and a long tail of /24s drawn from Pakistan's 202.70.x, 202.125.x, 203.135.x, 221.120.x and 58.181.x ranges.

Reverse DNS is the most informative part. Addresses resolve under pie.net.pk — PTCL's own domain, tied to the Pakistan Internet Exchange it operates — with hostnames keyed to city points of presence: khi77.pie.net.pk for Karachi and lhr63.pie.net.pk for Lahore. Many of them carry a static. prefix (static.khi77.pie.net.pk, static.lhr63.pie.net.pk), which marks statically-assigned customer addresses rather than a dynamic subscriber pool, and at least one is a switch (sw275b-khi77c1.pie.net.pk).

Only 1 BGP neighbour is observed. That confirms the AS is a stub: it does not reach the internet independently but hangs off PTCL's main network, which supplies its transit.

Notable

• The address space is concentrated on Karachi and Lahore, Pakistan's two largest commercial centres.
• A dissolved brand still visible in a registry record is common; the AS keeps announcing because renumbering customers is expensive.