According to PTA, a new licensing procedure is intended to standardise safe and legal VPN services.

Under the restored Class Value Added Services (CVAS-Data) system, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has formally begun awarding licenses to Virtual Private Network (VPN) service providers.

After previous initiatives, which included warnings about disabling unregistered VPNs, failed to obtain the desired compliance, the regulator created a new method for VPN registration late last year. PTA has started awarding Class Data Licences to qualified service providers nationwide under the updated framework.

The new licensing procedure, according to a statement issued by PTA on Thursday, is intended to regularise safe and legal VPN services and guarantee that these providers adhere to national data protection and regulatory requirements.

Several businesses have received licenses thus far, including:

• Steer Lucid’s Alpha 3 Cubic Pvt Ltd
• Nexilium Tech SMC-Pvt Ltd (Kestrel VPN) • Zettabyte Pvt Ltd (Crest VPN)
• QuiXure VPN (UKI Conic Solutions SMC-Pvt Ltd)
• Kryptonyme VPN (Vision Tech 360 Pvt Ltd)

By allowing several users to operate under a single framework without needing individual approvals, a class license simplifies, expedites, and increases the transparency of the system.