Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL) announced on Friday that its teams are working to resolve internet disruptions that have affected users since the previous night.
The disruptions were caused by a fault in one of the subsea internet cables connecting Pakistan, which led to slower network speeds across the country.
In a statement, PTCL confirmed the issue and assured that efforts were underway to fix it. The company apologized for the inconvenience and acknowledged that users might experience slower browsing speeds.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) confirmed on Thursday that the fault occurred in the Asia-Africa-Europe-1 (AAE-1) cable near Qatar. This cable, operational since 2017, links several countries, including Pakistan, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Greece, Italy, and France.
Despite improvements in mobile and fixed broadband speeds in October, Pakistan still has one of the slowest internet services globally, according to global speed test data.
On Wednesday, members of the Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology raised concerns about internet shutdowns, especially following directives from the interior ministry. In response, the PTA chairman explained that such shutdowns had been a recurring issue since 2016 but were recently declared unlawful, and noted that the interior ministry must provide a final legal opinion on the matter.
