The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has started licensing VPN services as part of the reinstated Class Value Added Services (CVAS-Data) regime.
This initiative aims to streamline the provision of secure and legal VPN services in Pakistan while ensuring compliance with national regulations and data security standards, the telecommunications authority said.
In this regard, the PTA has granted class licenses to several companies, including Alpha 3 Cubic (Pvt) Ltd (Steer Lucid), Zettabyte (Pvt) Ltd (Crest VPN), Nexilium Tech (SMC-Pvt) Ltd (Kestrel VPN), UKI Conic Solutions (SMC-Pvt) Ltd (QuiXure VPN) and Vision Tech 360 (Pvt) Ltd (Kryptonyme VPN).
The licensees are authorized to provide VPN services to individuals and organizations for legitimate and lawful purposes.
Users can now easily obtain VPN services directly from these licensed providers without the need to approach PTA for separate VPN registration of their IP addresses or mobile numbers.
The authority said the measure is aimed at promoting regulatory facilitation, user convenience and improved cybersecurity in Pakistan’s digital ecosystem.
People around the world often turn to VPNs to bypass online restrictions.
In Pakistan, many used them to reach X (formerly Twitter) before the government restored access.
