The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has started the second trial to shut down unregistered Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) with the new national firewall and begin a complete crackdown starting in December, official sources told ProPakistani.
Sources said this will be a two-day exercise.
PTA has set a November 30 deadline for VPN registration, after which unregistered VPNs will be blocked starting next month. More than 25,000 VPNs have been registered so far.
The authority wants to speed up the VPN registration and whitelisting process. Countries like China, Russia, Iran, Turkey, and others have blocked unregistered VPNs. The UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia also block unregistered VPNs, and some countries allow VPNs only for business use. PTA sources say there is no restriction on VPNs for business use in Pakistan.
Notably, users in Pakistan have been complaining about issues using free VPNs for several hours. Many users relied on free VPNs to access the social media platform X, but they are now complaining that free VPNs are no longer working.