ISLAMABAD – Internet users in Pakistan on Tuesday faced severe internetdisruption, following outage in international submarine cable systems IMEWEand SEAMEWE 4, which are providing internet bandwidth to Pakistan.According to details, IMEWE and SEAMEWE 4, that carry almost 50 percent ofPakistan’s internet traffic, went offline due to a fault at a locationthat’s yet not determined. As a result, Pakistani internet users willcontinue to face degraded internet speeds until the faults in cable systemsare fixed.
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Spokesperson Khurram Mehran saidthat due to some fault in international submarine cables at around 5:00pmon Tuesday, users can face some problems in internet browsing quality. ThePTCL is working with international consortiums to rectify the fault anddetermine the cause and exact location of the fault occurred. Hopefully, itwould be rectified soon, he added. However, no timeframe has beencommunicated regarding the repair of both impacted submarine cables.
Managing Director (MD) National Telecommunications Corporation (NTC) lastweek raised questions over the submarine cables under the control ofPakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL). He said that submarinecable was the asset of Pakistan which was being held by PTCL, which hadbeen taken over by Dubai-based Etisalat after privatization. He said thatsubmarine cable should have been handed over to NTC at the time of PTCLprivatization. He further said that NTC had planned to lay marine cablealong China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) on Coastal Highway.
