Pakistan grants first VPN licenses in a bid to regulate VPN usage in the country

• The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has granted the first licenses to three companies to provide VPN services
• The new framework comes as Pakistanis increasingly use VPNs to bypass the X ban and other internet restrictions
• The Authority now urges all VPN providers to obtain a license to avoid potential service disruptions

Pakistan’s telecom authority continues its quest to regulate the use of unlicensed VPNs across the country despite pushbacks.

On April 18, 2025, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) granted the needed license to three companies in order to provide their services in the country. The Authority now urges all VPN providers operating in Pakistan to obtain a license to avoid potential service disruptions.

All this comes as increasingly more Pakistanis have been using some of the best VPN services to access X, which has been blocked since February 2024, and other restricted social media platforms.

The end of unlicensed VPNs in Pakistan?

“The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has commenced the licensing of Virtual Private Network (VPN) service providers under the Class License for the Provision of Data Services in Pakistan. As part of this process, PTA has already granted Class Licenses to provide VPN services to three companies,” the PTA wrote in an official announcement.

The plan for a new licensing category for VPN providers was first unveiled in December last year in a bid to regulate Pakistan VPN usage. Companies need to apply for a permit to operate within the country and avoid potential blocks.

As the Pakistani English-speaking newspaper The Dawn pointed out at the time, the PTA plan envisages local companies to provide VPN or proxy services to citizens, instead of foreign companies, which are more difficult to control.

This may mean the anonymity of Pakistani VPN users could be compromised when using a licensed provider as authorities may be able to monitor VPN traffic.

As mentioned earlier, the Authority is now urging all VPN providers operating in the country to apply for the needed license.

“Timely licensing will help prevent potential service disruptions and ensure uninterrupted access for their customers,” wrote the PTA.

VPN services remain a necessary tool at the time of writing to keep accessing all the main social media platforms in Pakistan, including X, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and even Bluesky.

Given last year’s failures in successfully regulating VPN usage in Pakistan – authorities were forced to withdraw the ban on unregistered services due to a lack of legal grounds to ban VPNs – it’s difficult to predict what’s at stake for VPN users in the country.

Talking to TechRadar back in December, Proton VPN confirmed that if the PTA’s VPN framework is eventually enforced for all providers, the company’s response would be to replace its physical servers with its Smart Routing technology, as the company did in India in 2022.

TechRadar has approached some of the top providers for comment on the matter, but we are still waiting for a response at the time of writing.

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Chiara is a multimedia journalist committed to covering stories to help promote the rights and denounce the abuses of the digital side of life – wherever cybersecurity, markets, and politics tangle up. She believes an open, uncensored, and private internet is a basic human need and wants to use her knowledge of VPNs to help readers take back control. She writes news, interviews, and analysis on data privacy, online censorship, digital rights, tech policies, and security software, with a special focus on VPNs, for TechRadar and TechRadar Pro. Got a story, tip-off, or something tech-interesting to say? Reach out to chiara.castro@futurenet.com