The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) announced on Saturday that there is no significant degradation of internet services across the country, despite ongoing challenges.
“To address the issue of degradation of Internet services due to fault in AAE1 submarine cable on January 2, 2025, ad hoc bandwidth has been arranged and added in the system,” the PTA stated in a press release. The authority assured that it is actively overseeing the restoration efforts for the AAE-1 submarine cable and is “committed to ensuring that all services remain stable during this period.”
The development comes after Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) on Friday warned of slow browsing issues caused by an international submarine cable outage. “Teams are working diligently to resolve the matter as soon as possible,” PTCL said on X.
Earlier, the PTA informed the public about disruptions stemming from a fault in the international submarine cable near Qatar, which could potentially impact internet and broadband services nationwide. “This is to inform the general public that a fault has been reported in the submarine cable AAE-1 near Qatar (one of the seven international undersea cables connecting Pakistan for international internet traffic),” the PTA said in a statement on Thursday. “This may impact internet and broadband user experience across Pakistan.”
Despite the ad hoc measures, Pakistan continues to face internet disruptions, compounded by the ongoing blockage of social media platform X in the country.
According to Ookla’s Speedtest Global Index for October, Pakistan’s fixed broadband services ranked 141 out of 158 countries, with a median speed of just 15.6 Mbps. For mobile internet, the country stood at 100th position out of 111 nations, recording a median speed of 20.61 Mbps.
