Tech Desk
Sep 10, 2024
An undated image showing a protected VPN. — Unsplash
Chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Major General ® Hafeezur Rehman, on Monday, announced that the PTA is set to block all illegal virtual private networks (VPNs) in Pakistan.
Recently news surfaced on social media about PTA banning VPNs, while PTA clarified that registered VPNs are not blocked in Pakistan.
According to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), “To facilitate businesses of software houses, call centres, freelancers, and foreign embassies for legal, protected, and uninterrupted operations VPNs are now registered under ”one window” operations available at PTA and Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) website.”
According to the PTA chairman, the regulator has registered 20,500 VPNs and is actively working to increase the number of registered VPNs.
Read more: Pakistan's internet outage — Female freelancers, entrepreneurs among the hardest hit
Meanwhile, despite the progressively growing concerns about unauthorised VPN usage, especially for accessing blocked platforms like X (formerly Twitter), the chairman highlighted that it would not take immediate action against illegal usage of VPNs but would be more aggressive against the issue once registration is complete.
PTA further added, that to ensure incessant online businesses, users are required to register their VPNs at:
https://ipregistration.pta.gov.pk/.
This process is said to take two to three days and is free of cost.
