ISLAMABAD, JAN 3: Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL) on Friday said teams were “diligently” working to resolve the matter of disruptions faced by users since last night after a fault in one of the subsea internet cables connecting Pakistan slowed down the network speed in the country.
According to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), the fault developed in the Asia-Africa-Europe-1 (AAE-1) cable near Qatar.
The Africa-Asia-Europe (AAE)-1 cable, which began operations in 2017, connects Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Pakistan, India, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Greece, Italy and France.
Faults with the cable caused internet users in Pakistan to experience frequent slowdowns and disruptions in 2024. While businesses and internet providers alleged that the government’s attempts to monitor internet traffic were responsible, the PTA issued a statement in August attributing the slowdown to a faulty submarine cable.
According to a statement issued by PTCL today, teams were working “diligently to resolve the matter as soon as possible”.
“Due to an international submarine cable outage, you may experience slow browsing issues,” it said.
“We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused during this time,” it added.
Separately, PTCL spokesperson Amir Pasha told Dawn.com that the state-owned company was “in contact with the international teams” who were working on the issue.
“We are receiving regular updates from them,” he said, adding that the fault had occurred in the cable near Qatar.
Yesterday, during a meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on IT and Telecom, minister, Shaza Fatima Khawaja, told the committee that IT or any other industry had not reported any issues related to the Internet.
The minister’s response angered PPP MNA Sharmila Farooqi, who expressed disappointment over the officials’ attitude.
Pakistan has one of the slowest internet in the world despite improvement in average mobile and fixed broadband speeds in October, according to global speed test data.
Ookla’s Speedtest Global Index for October showed that for fixed broadband — wired connections to your homes or offices — Pakistan ranked 141 out of 158 nations with a median speed of 15.6mbps.
In terms of mobile data, the country ranked 100 out of 111 countries with a median speed of 20.61mbps.
For the last few months, users across Pakistan have experienced sluggish speeds, difficulty downloading media on WhatsApp, and intermittent connectivity issues.
The frequent internet disruptions were coupled with limited access to virtual private networks used by many Pakistanis to access X, among other restricted websites. Since July, the country has improved its ranking for fixed broadband speed from 145 to 141 and mobile data from 101 to 100.
The government had tacitly acknowledged last month on the floor of the National Assembly that it was behind the ongoing internet disruptions and monitoring of social media platforms, citing prevailing security concerns.
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