VPN registration begins in Pakistan to curb internet disruptions

The government has decided to begin registration of virtual private networks (VPNs) as part of the ‘one window’ operation by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and software export board website.

The development comes as the country has been facing widescale internet disruption for weeks.

“To facilitate businesses of software houses, call centres, freelancers and foreign missions and embassies for their legitimate, secure and uninterrupted operations, VPNs are being registered under ‘one window’ operations available at the PTA and PSEB website,” the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said in a statement.

Consumers could register their VPNs on the PTA websites to ensure uninterrupted internet for securing online business.

An IT expert said the VPN would provide uninterrupted internet on days when services are blocked.

The use of VPNs has increased across the country since the February elections when authorities blocked micro-blogging site X.

However, the country has been dealing with slower internet since July. According to an IT association, the internet speed slowed down by 40 percent than normal speed.

Digital rights experts attributed this to the government’s firewall experiment, a security system that monitors network traffic and is also used to control online spaces.

However, the claims to install firewall were rejected by the government.

Earlier in August, State Minister IT Shaza Fatima Khawaja denied the report of the government’s influence on the internet and clarified that the state was neither slowing down its speed nor shutting it down.

“The report of the government throttling internet is wrong,” she stated at a press conference in Islamabad on August 18.

On August 28, the PTA attributed the slowdown to damage in the submarine cable, which would be repaired by early October according to the authorities.