The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Thursday commenced the licencing of Virtual Private Network (VPN) service providers under the reinstated Class Value Added Services (CVAS-Data) regime.

In December last year, the PTA had devised a new strategy to register VPNs after its previous efforts to ensure compliance, such as warning to ban unregistered VPNs, failed to yield the desired results. It said it had resumed granting Class Licence for Data services to service providers in Pakistan.

In a press release issued today, the telecom regulator said licensing under the CVAS-Data regime “aims to streamline the provision of secure and lawful VPN services in Pakistan while ensuring compliance with national regulations and data security standards”.

The PTA said it has granted class licences 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).

A class licence allows multiple users to operate under a general set of conditions without needing individual approval.

“These licensees are authorised to offer VPN services to individuals and organisations for legitimate and lawful purposes,” the telecom regulator said.

Users can now “conveniently obtain VPN services directly from these licenced providers without the need to approach PTA for separate VPN registration of their IP addresses or mobile numbers”.

“This measure is aimed at promoting regulatory facilitation, user convenience, and enhanced cybersecurity across Pakistan’s digital ecosystem,” the PTA said.

VPNs are widely used around the world to access content that may be inaccessible or blocked for internet users in their home country. In the case of Pakistanis, VPNs are used to access X, among other restricted websites.

The telecom regulator had initially decided to ban VPNs in November last year over the lack of legal grounds, but later withdrew the decision.

In February, the PTA issued licences to two companies for providing VPN services in an attempt to monitor traffic bypassing local censorship.

The licensed companies will only provide VPN services to commercial clients — IT comp­anies, banks, foreign missions, etc — making the use of VPN by individual users unlawful.