KARACHI: A technical analysis conducted by a digital rights group has found that Pakistani users accessing the internet via virtual private networks (VPNs) last month got better download speeds and faced almost no disruptions.

In a recent report, Bytes For All (B4A) said a network health scan conducted across various internet service providers (ISPs) in Pakistan revealed “significant” differences in performance between VPN and non-VPN connections.

“This improvement is evident in higher download speeds and lower retransmission rates, indicating that VPNs may bypass ISP-imposed throttling or DPI measures,” the report said, while referring to Deep Packet Inspection, said to be one of the reasons for internet slowdown.

Ever since internet disruptions started in July, people have been looking for answers over what was causing it. After weeks of clamour, a response was issued by the minister in charge, who had blamed the issue on the excessive use of VPNs by internet users.

Technical analysis by digital rights group Bytes For All shows users employing VPNs had better speeds than those who accessed web without a VPN

In a press conference on August 18, Minister of State for IT and Telecom­mu­nication Shaza Fatima Khawaja denied state involvement in the internet slowdown and claimed the broadband speeds were reduced because a large number of people had switched to VPNs to access certain apps.

Ms Khawaja did not respond to Dawn’s request for comment.

Talking to Dawn, B4A head Shahzad Ahmad, who is also one of the authors of the report, said the analysis was conducted on four ISPs with the biggest user base.

The authors used two open-source tools — M.Lab Network Diagnostic Tool (NDT) and Measurement Swiss Army Knife (MSAK) — to check the differences in download and upload speeds, latency and retransmission rates on fixed and mobile broadband, both with and without VPNs.

Retransmission means when packets of information are sent again after being lost during transmission. A high retransmission rate represents excessive tinkering with the network in the form of inspection, throttling, or blocking. Similarly, a high latency rate means that the delay between users performing an action — for example, entering a website URL — and the result — website loading — appearing in front of them is longer.

When there is excessive filtering or blocking, it impacts the latency and reduces the internet speed, Mr Ahmad said.

Internet with and without VPN

When tested using NDT, the download speed on fixed broadband without a VPN was 20.42 megabytes per second and 0.48mbps on MSAK. When connected to a VPN, the speeds increased to 56.95mbps and 27.31mbps, respectively.

The test results for mobile broadband without VPN showed download speeds of 1.94mbps (NDT) and 0.33mbps (MSAK). They increased to 8.98mbps and 10.24mbps, respectively, when a VPN was connected.

“We wanted to examine what the [minister] said, that the internet slowed down because people were using VPNs. But when people bypassed local ISPs and connected VPNs, the disruptions were circumvented. That’s why their speeds improved,” Mr Ahmed told Dawn.

On fixed broadband without a VPN, latency was 203 milliseconds (NDT) and 196ms (MSAK).

“The latency is relatively high, which can be an indicator of traffic inspection or routing issues, which are often associated with DPI or poorly configured firewalls,” the report said about the delay, which ideally should be in the range of 20 to 40ms for a stable internet connection.

The Bytes 4 All analysis concluded that the significant improvement in download speeds when using a VPN suggests ISPs’ involvement in “traffic manipulation” or the presence of a DPI system.

“The VPN encrypts the users’ traffic making it difficult for DPI systems to inspect or throttle specific types of traffic, resulting in better performance.”

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2024