The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has acknowledged that the country has experienced multiple internet service disruptions over the last five years, with several incidents occurring just this year.
The details, revealed in an official document that surfaced recently, shed light on the recurring challenges faced by Pakistan’s internet infrastructure, often attributed to submarine cable failures.
According to the PTA's report, internet services were disrupted four times across the country in 2024 alone. Earlier this year, in February, a land cable cut in Egypt significantly affected internet services in Pakistan.
The most recent outage, attributed to a submarine cable fault under water near Karachi, occurred on June 17, and the PTA has indicated that repairs are expected to be completed by September 24.
The country’s internet infrastructure suffered another blow on July 31 due to a fault in the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) system, causing nationwide disruptions.
From August 17 to 27, internet services were again disrupted due to a fault in the Asia Africa Europe-3 (AAE-3) submarine cable, the PTA report noted. This follows a similar incident in April 2023 when an earth cable cut in France led to widespread internet issues.
The document also detailed incidents from previous years. In November 2022, a ground cable cut in Egypt caused a major disruption, and in February 2022, a malfunction in the TW1 cable in Karachi led to a three-month-long internet outage. Similarly, in December 2021, a cut in the UAE’s main land cable, AAE-1, affected internet services for several hours. Earlier in February 2021, another ground cable cut in Egypt resulted in significant connectivity issues.
