A report from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has revealed that the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) in the country is causing a loss of $10,000 per minute. The findings were part of an investigation into the disruptions in internet services. The report indicates that the increased use of VPNs resulted in a loss of $10,000 per minute, with an increase in internet speed in December. The bandwidth usage through VPNs reached 634 GB per second in August, and dropped to 437 GB per second in December after improvements in internet service.
The report highlights that the growing use of VPNs is putting pressure on Pakistan’s internet infrastructure. Around 70% of internet services in the country are provided through Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), and the increasing VPN use is bypassing local CDNs. The report explains that VPNs reroute traffic to international servers, which the global submarine cable infrastructure cannot handle during peak hours, causing disruptions.
During this period, WhatsApp moved its session servers abroad, which led to issues for users. To address these disruptions, the report suggests increasing the capacity of submarine cables and improving local routing systems to enhance internet speed.
