No PTCL timeline to fix internet

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ISLAMABAD:

The Pakistan Telecommunications Limited (PTCL) said on Thursday that additional bandwidth had been arranged to redress the issue of internet slowdown in Pakistan, following a fault in the Asia-Africa-Europe-1 (AAE-1), one of the seven international marine cables connecting Pakistan.

However, media reports indicated that PTCL did not provide a specific timeframe for the repair of the fault. The reports said that both PTCL and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority were working diligently to resolve the issue as soon as possible, though it might take a few days.

The PTA revealed last week that the internet and broadband users might experience disruptions as submarine cable AAE-1 developed a fault near Qatar. The PTCL stated that Meta-related services – WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram – might be slowed during peak hours.

After the fault, Minister of State for Information Technology (IT) Shaza Fatima Khawaja had said that efforts were under way to reroute an additional 200 gigabytes per second shortly. She also said that 630 gigabytes per second of the affected traffic had already been shifted to an alternative route.

Pakistan had been grappling with slow internet since last year, with the government consistently blaming submarine cable faults. The internet slowdown was especially hard for freelancers, who number more than two million, and play a significant role in the country's economic growth.

Despite these issues, Pakistan's telecom sector is moving towards progress, as the government was taking steps to improve the telecom and IT sectors. The PTA mentioned the launch of 2Africa cable project to address the bandwidth issue in the country.

The 45,000 kilometres long 2Africa project is the world's largest submarine cable network that circumnavigates the coastline of Africa to interconnect Europe and the Middle East. It comprises 46 landing stations in 33 countries, including Pakistan.

The landing location of 2Africa Cable Project in Pakistan would be Hawkes Bay in the Keamari Town of Karachi, with Trans World Associates as its local operators. 2Africa passes from Europe through Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean, and then back into Europe via the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.

According to data, Pakistan's telecom revenues had reached Rs955 billion from 2023 to 2024. In the country, telecom cellular services are available to 91% of the population, while 81% of the population is benefiting from 4G service.

The data pointed out that the number of mobile phone users has risen by 29%, and internet access to households by 20%. Besides, Pakistan has also joined the 37 countries in the world that have established WebTrust audited National Public Infrastructure.

(WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM NEWS DESK)