The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) announced on Saturday that there is no major deterioration in internet services across the country, despite ongoing challenges.
“To address the issue of degradation of internet services due to a fault in the AAE1 submarine cable on January 2, 2025, dedicated bandwidth has been arranged and added to the system,” PTA said in a press release. The authority confirmed that it is actively supervising the restoration efforts of the AAE-1 submarine cable and that it is “committed to ensuring that all services remain stable during this period.”
This development comes after Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited (PTCL) on Friday warned of slow browsing issues caused by the international submarine cable outage. “Teams are working hard to resolve the issue as soon as possible,” PTCL said in X.
Earlier, PTA informed the public of the disruptions caused by a fault in the international submarine cable near Qatar, which could affect internet and broadband services across the country. “This is to inform the general public that a fault has been reported in the AAE-1 submarine cable near Qatar (one of the seven international submarine cables connecting Pakistan with international internet traffic),” the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority said in a statement on Thursday. “This may impact internet and broadband user experience across Pakistan.”
Despite dedicated measures, Pakistan continues to face internet outages, which are exacerbated by the ongoing ban 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 an average speed of just 15.6 Mbps. For mobile internet, the country ranked 100th out of 111 countries, recording an average speed of 20.61 Mbps.