ISLAMABAD – Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Wednesday identified several reasons behind the slow internet speed and disruptions in service delivery across the country.
“The use of VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) surged during internet disruptions in Pakistan, contributing to slower internet speeds,” said PTA in its report.
It said that the increasing use of VPNs put an additional pressure on the country’s internet infrastructure.
According to the report, the rising use of VPNs is bypassing local Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), which are responsible for delivering 70% of the internet in Pakistan. VPNs rerouted the traffic to the international servers, bypassing CDNs.
The increased VPN traffic caused a rise in bandwidth usage, which is negatively impacted the foreign exchange reserves. The cost of each megabyte through VPNs is one dollar.
Bandwidth usage via VPNs reached 634 GBPS in August.
In September, it reached 597 GBPS, in October it rose to 815 GBPS, and in November, bandwidth usage through VPNs dropped to 378 GBPS.
However, after the improvements in December, the usage stood at 437 GBPS.
