VPN Services to Be Localized Under PTA’s New Regime

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has introduced a new strategy to “register” VPNs, addressing the shortcomings of its previous efforts to ensure compliance.

Virtual private network (VPN) service providers will now be able to apply for licenses under a new category established by the regulator.

As a result, all proxies other than those from licensed companies would be considered unregistered and blocked. This would finally solve the issue of what officials call “unregistered VPNs.”

Authorities would be able to monitor VPN traffic with licensed service providers, as one of the main complaints about proxy networks is the anonymity they provide. The PTA recently announced in a press release that it is once again issuing Class Licences for Data services to Pakistani service providers.

A Class Licence for Data (Data Services) must be obtained by VPN service providers in order to offer VPN and related services, according to the press release.

Companies offering cellular and internet services as well as car trackers are already licensed by the telecom authority. A new class of VPNs is now included in the PTA’s list of licensed services.

Advantages of Localized VPN Services

Users will be able to use proxy services through local companies that are constrained by Pakistani laws, license terms, and regulatory regulations, according to the plan.

Instead of the current situation, where the majority of VPN providers are foreign corporations, this will allow the regulator to have more control over these companies.

Emergence of a new regime

The Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA), which is just a group of businesses that provide IT and IT-enabled services, first proposed the concept of regional VPN providers.

Syed, chairman of P@SHA, stated, “We have told the PTA and the IT ministry that we needed an international model to facilitate around 2.5 million freelancers in the country. The majority of them were females who were just supplementing the family income through meager IT export projects.” P@SHA also informed the IT ministry of this fact. He went on to say that VPN companies would license their services to PTA.

Similar to how cellular providers and ISPs sell their services, these licensees would sell VPNs to clients, Mr. Sajjad continued. One VPN user can move to another if they are unhappy with the services of the first one.

“Besides, the government can monitor the content of the local VPN user, and this way, the security concerns related to VPNs can also be addressed,” Mr. Sajjad stated.

To provide VPN services across the country, the companies will need to pay Rs300,000 in license costs, while services inside a province will cost Rs100,000.

The initial term of these licenses would be fifteen years, and they would be renewable for an additional fifteen years after that.

Surveillance and Licensing Requirements

According to documents on the PTA website, any company offering VPN services would have to follow the same license rules as the current service providers.

The corporation is required to “[p]romptly provide all information, as and when desired by the Authority [PTA], which helps it to quantify the proliferation of the technologies or services whether technical, regulatory or financial in nature,” according to one clause.

Additionally, the licensee is obligated to follow all regulations, including but not limited to the Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-organization) Act 1996, and any infraction of this provision may lead to legal penalties.

According to another condition, “…the license and/or the service provider will have to provide “Lawful Interception” (LI) equipment to the nationally authorized security organizations, at the licensee’s own expense,” because of national security concerns.

It’s important to remember that telecom companies, which also have PTA licenses, have already put in a similar surveillance system, as Dawn revealed earlier this year.

The Islamabad High Court’s case proceedings exposed this system’s specifics.

Any telecom user’s data might be collected, monitored, and even listened to during phone calls and text messages, according to the court. These businesses are legally required to use the Lawful Intercept Management System (LIMS) to monitor as many as 20% of their customers.

These licensing regulations, if applied to VPN providers, would defeat the objective of proxy networks: anonymity.

According to technical experts, this new method is pointless since it gives authorities too much ability to oversee.

According to Shahzad Arshad, chairman of the Wireless & Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan, the announcement that authorities can monitor the operations of local VPNs has already been made. “So, why would any international commercial entity like a foreign bank use the services of a local company?”

He also said that VPN use couldn’t be stopped, and if some proxies were banned, people would just use another one because everyone had a lot of choices.