- Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) granted the first licenses to three companies to provide VPN services
- The new framework occurs while Pakistanis are increasingly using VPNs to circumvent the X ban and other Internet restrictions
- The authority now urges all VPN suppliers to obtain a license to avoid potential service disturbances
The Pakistan telecommunications authority is continuing its quest to regulate the use of VPN without license through the country despite the setbacks.
On April 18, 2025, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) granted the license necessary to three companies in order to provide their services in the country. The authority now urges all VPN suppliers operating in Pakistan to obtain a license to avoid potential service disturbances.
All this comes, because the more Pakistanis use some of the best VPN services to access X, which has been blocked since February 2024, and other limited social media platforms.
The end of VPN without license in Pakistan?
“Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) began the license for virtual private network services (VPN) under the class license for the provision of data services to Pakistan. As part of this process, the PTA has already granted class licenses to provide VPN services to three companies,” the PTA wrote in an official announcement.
The new license category for VPN suppliers was unveiled for the first time in December of last year in order to regulate the use of Pakistani VPN. Companies must request a permit to operate in the country and avoid potential blocks.
While the English -speaking Pakistani newspaper, The Dawn, underlined it at the time, the PTA plan plans to local businesses to provide VPN or attractive services to citizens, instead of foreign companies, which are more difficult to control.
This may mean that anonymity of Pakistani VPN users could be compromised when using an approved supplier because the authorities can monitor VPN traffic.
As mentioned above, the authority now urges all VPN suppliers operating in the country to request the necessary license.
“Local -time licenses will help prevent potential services from services and ensure uninterrupted access to their customers,” the PTA wrote.
VPN services remain a necessary tool at the time of writing to continue accessing all the main social media platforms in Pakistan, including X, Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp and even Bluesky.
Given last year’s failures in the successful management of the use of VPNs in Pakistan – the authorities were forced to withdraw the ban on unregistered services due to a lack of legal grounds to prohibit VPN – it is difficult to predict what is at stake for VPN users in the country.
Speaking to Techradar in December, Proton VPN confirmed that if the PTA VPN frame was finally applied for all suppliers, the company’s response would be to replace its physical servers with its intelligent routing technology, as the company did in India in 2022.
Techradar addressed some of the best suppliers to comment on the question, but we are still waiting for an answer when writing the editorial’s time.
