ISLAMABAD:
Pakistan Telecommunications Limited (PTCL) said on Thursday that additional bandwidth had been made available to address the problem of Internet slowdown in Pakistan, following a failure in Asia-Africa-Europe-1 (AAE-1), one of the seven international seaports. cables connecting Pakistan.
However, media reports stated that PTCL did not provide a specific timeline for the repair of the fault. Reports said that both PTCL and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority were working diligently to resolve the issue as soon as possible, although it might take a few days.
The PTA revealed last week that internet and broadband users could experience disruptions when the AAE-1 submarine cable developed a fault near Qatar. The PTCL stated that Meta-related services (WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram) could be slowed down during peak hours.
Following the ruling, Minister of State for Information Technology (IT) Shaza Fatima Khawaja said efforts were soon underway to redirect another 200 gigabytes per second. Additionally, 630 gigabytes per second of affected traffic has already been diverted to an alternative route.
Pakistan had been grappling with a slow internet connection since last year, with the government constantly blaming faults in undersea cables. The Internet slowdown was especially hard on self-employed workers, who number more than two million and play an important role in the country’s economic growth.
Despite these problems, 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 the 2Africa cable project to address the bandwidth problem in the country.
The 45,000 kilometer long 2Africa project is the world’s largest submarine cable network circumnavigating the coast of Africa to interconnect Europe and the Middle East. It comprises 46 landing stations in 33 countries, including Pakistan.
The landing site for the 2Africa Cable Project in Pakistan would be Hawkes Bay in Keamari town in Karachi, with Trans World Associates as its local operators. 2Africa passes from Europe through the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean, and then returns to Europe through the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.
According to the data, Pakistan’s telecom revenue reached Rs 955 billion between 2023 and 2024. In the country, cellular telecommunication services are available to 91% of the population, while 81% of the population benefits from 4G service.
The data indicates that the number of mobile phone users has increased by 29% and Internet access in homes by 20%. Furthermore, Pakistan has also joined the 37 countries in the world that have established a national public infrastructure audited by WebTrust.
(WITH ADDITIONAL INPUTS FROM THE NEWS DESK)
