Unfortunately, no application has been submitted to PTA at this point, but these registrations have started for VPN service providers from December 19. The service providers are still reviewing the registration requirements to submit the same in the next two weeks to four weeks.
As part of this new system, VPN service providers will be registered under a Class License for Data Services, providing them setup of data centers within Pakistan, under the authority of the PTA to monitor and regulate VPN services through their compliance with the data protection laws of the country.
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The licensing fee that companies will have to pay will be subjected to a wide range from Rs. 200000 to Rs. 400000. This was done after many consultations with various stakeholders about the many unregistered VPNs. Ambiguous unlicensed proxies from registered companies will be blacklisted.
PTA officials stated that the primary reason for such an initiative is to improve the enhancement of cybersecurity monitoring capabilities at user level access of user data related to a user’s browsing history organism through which cyberattacks could be identified and tracked in a systematic manner for managing the use of VPN applications.