Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has commenced the registration of VPN Service Providers.
The PTA has called interested firms to apply under the ‘Class License for Data services’ and the VPN service provides are required to obtain Class License for Data (Data Services) to provide VPN and related services.
This is another attempt by the PTA to register all non-registered VPNs in country, and eventually block all unregistered VPNs.
The PTA has set the licence fee of Rs300,000 for the nationwide and Rs100,000 for Provincial level VPN operator.
The usage of VPNs has surged in the country after the shutdown of social media platform X (erstwhile twitter) in February this year.
Whereas only the commercial VPNs were being registered by the PTA, used by the IT companies, banks, foreign missions etc, while there was no arrangement to register the VPNs for the freelancers of IT businesses.
At the same time there is no provision for the registration of non-commercial VPNs used by the individuals and all the X messages by the key government functionaries including the PM office were being uploaded through the usage of non-registered VPNs.
The idea of introducing VPN service providers was floated by the trade body representing IT and IT-enabled services sector- Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA).
Sajjad Syed chairman P@SHA said that the association has told the PTA and the IT ministry that the move would facilitate around 2.5 million freelancers in country.
He added large number of freelancers were females who were just supplementing the family income through meagre IT export projects we needed an international model.
Under the policy by PTA, the VPN Service Providers, would pay licence fee to PTA for registration and sell their VPNs to the clients, like any mobile phone service or internet service, if their product was not up to the mark the customer can change the service provider.
Under the new arrangement the government can monitor the content of the local VPN user and this way the security concerns related to VPNs can also be controlled.
