PTA won't block VPNs, says regulator

Data shows half of Pakistanis hooked to Facebook, YouTube

ISLAMABAD:

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said on Monday that neither the regulator had blocked any virtual private network (VPNs) in the country till-date, nor it planned to do so in the future despite having the capability to block them.

The PTA launched its 'Annual Report' indicating that the telecom sector revenues reached a record Rs955 billion in fiscal year 2023-24, with an average revenue per user (ARPU) of Rs302 per month in April-June 2024 period.

Speaking at the report launching ceremony, PTA Chairman Hafizur Rehman made it clear that so far, no VPN had been blocked and there was no such plan for the future. "We have said it before, and I repeat it now: we could block VPNs, but we won't. To date, no VPNs have been blocked," he said.

The statement comes after news taking rounds for months that the regulator had initiated the process of registering the VPNs. The deadline for the registration was extended beyond November 30. However, a new deadline had not been announced for the VPN suspension.

The government expressed the apprehension that VPN use might be harmful for the people, while accessing immoral contents on the social media or other internet platforms. According to the latest PTA data, half of the country's population used two social media platforms – Facebook and YouTube.

These two platforms remained the most popular among the Pakistani social media users with over 60 million Facebook users and more that 70 million YouTube viewers. The data showed that well over 70% users were males.

TikTok is another popular social media platform in Pakistan with 54.4 million users by January 2024, 78% of them male users. The Instagram users are were 7.3 million – 64 males and 36% females, according to the PTA data.

The PTA annual report said that the number of telecom subscribers had reached to 196 million, among them 142.3 million were broadband subscribers -- 3.6 million fixed broadband and 138.7 million mobile broadband. Besides mobile subscribers topped 193.4 million.

It said that cellular mobile services now reach 91% of 142.3 million Pakistan's population, with 3G/4G signals reaching over 81%. By June 2024 there were 55,777 operational cell sites, 95.5% of them supporting 4G. These efforts drove a surge in the number of broadband subscribers, it added. (WITH INPUT FROM APP)