Internet services disrupted across Pakistan

Internet service disruption has affected users across the country, with complaints coming in as early as the wee hours of Friday morning.   

Sources at PTCL told Profit, “Recent spell of heavy rains across the country and subsequent flash floods have caused significant damage to infrastructure including the underground fiber cables.”

PTCL, the primary fiber infrastructure provider in the country (owns around 75% of the infrastructure), is also the infrastructure service partner for the Cellular Mobile Operators and other broadband companies. Therefore, due to the recent network disruption, users of Zong, Telenor, Ufone, Nayatel, and other broadband service providers have also been affected. 

However, as per users on social media, Jazz seems to be the network least affected by the disruption. Sources told Profit that Jazz had sufficient capacity to shift its bandwidth to an alternate fiber infrastructure.

“Jazz network is by and large unaffected with our robust architecture and multiple layers of protection to provide consistent experience to our users. We are also experiencing a spike in data traffic and all efforts are being made to ensure a seamless customer experience.” Khayyam Siddiqi, Head of External Communication at Jazz, told Profit. 

The restoration of services for mobile users has almost been completed while work is underway to get the broadband service up and running. 

Meanwhile, read the intricacies of Pakistan’s Fiber Optic Network in Profit’s article: Laying Connectivity: Decoding the Submarine Cable Network