The telecom regulator has issued a directive to the internet service providers asking them to maintain the rules for providing VPN service, a data communication service within any organisation. A BTRC directive issued on Sunday said that the ISPs can only provide VPN connection to government organisations and commercial offices and no third party use of the service will be allowed.The directive also said that the VPN tunnels should only be used for data communication and carrying any voice traffic will be illegal.
The ISPs were also instructed to set up a monitoring system for the service at their own cost.
The BTRC asked the ISPs to provide a monthly report to the commission within a week after the end of a month.
The ISPs shall also provide a single MRTG link to the commission, containing MRTG of all of its individual clients, must notify BTRC in written format before enabling any VPN tunnel over 1 Mbps bandwidth, it said.
The BTRC asked the IIG operators to keep all records of VPN services after getting access proposal from the ISPs.
BTRC officials said in the previous practice the ISPs had to submit application for every single VPN connection but the new instruction will ease the process.
‘We have streamlined the terms and conditions and the ISPs will now follow the rules and provide connection on their own. The monthly reporting to BTRC will ensure the monitoring,’ a BTRC official said on Monday.
He said the VPN connection is mainly used by banks, hospitals, and transport companies.
‘The VPN allows the company to maintain their own private network through encrypted data service,’ he said.
-With New Age input
