COMSATS Internet Services (CIS) is the pioneer Internet Service Provider (ISP) of Pakistan, which was started as a project of COMSATS in 1996. Internet being a relatively new technology at that time, COMSATS established CIS to provide Internet connectivity mainly to government organizations, and also to provide a platform for services, such as tele-health and distance learning. CIS provided Internet service during the early days of COMSATS’ tele-health services in Gujar Khan and Baltistan. Initially, CIS launched dial-up operations in Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi. Subsequently, its operations were extended to Faisalabad, Sialkot, Peshawar, Gilgit and Multan. Currently, CIS has presence in 8 major cities of Pakistan and offers its customers multiple media options for internet connectivity over copper, fiber, wireless, and satellite. In 1998, CIS launched a data center offering hosting and co-location services. CIS became the first training partner of CISCO in Pakistan in 2000. In 2004, CIS launched DSL service and, in 2005, its wireless broadband service was launched, which is now its flagship product. In 2008, CIS was ranked the best ISP by the Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) for services in Lahore, Karachi, Faisalabad, and Sialkot.

At present, CIS offers eight different branded services known as ‘The Colors of CIS’. These include: core services, such as Freedom™ (Wi-Fi DSL), Tornado™ (Wireless links), and Hawaii™ (domain, hosting, and VPS), and value-added services, such as Hurricane™ (On-demand broadband), Prism™ (Website development), Viacon™ (Video-conferencing), Comtrain™ (IT training), and ComClinic™ (Telemedicine).

CIS has different centers of expertise, including a data center, a training center, and a video-conferencing center. The data center offers hosting on both Windows and Linux platforms. Keeping its tradition of being the pioneer ISP, CIS became the first ISP to offer VPS (virtual private server) with local hosting services in Pakistan in April 2012. VPS is at the infrastructure level of the Cloud service stack. In view of the growing demand for cloud computing, CIS intends to launch the COMSATS Cloud™ by the end of 2013. In 2012, CIS established new training centers in Faisalabad and Peshawar in addition to the one in Islamabad. CIS offers a wide range of training courses on Cisco® networking, Linux Administration, Windows Administration, Web development, ITIL® V3 Foundation, Project Management Professional®, and Information Security. Moreover, CIS established two video-conferencing centers in Islamabad and Peshawar in 2012. These centers are being used for both local and foreign video-conferencing for meetings and trainings.

As of December 2012, CIS has more than 30,000 customers including individuals, government organizations, private enterprises, foreign missions, and educational institutions in Pakistan. With an experience of over 16 years as an ISP and of data center operations, CIS can provide consultancy and training services to any institution in COMSATS’ member country that wishes to launch a new ISP or intends to launch any of the eight services offered by CIS in Pakistan.

ComClinic™ is a telehealth service offered by CIS. Its first telemedicine clinic is being established at Gokina village near the Federal Capital, Islamabad, while more clinics are expected to be established in the rural areas of Pakistan in 2013.