News Desk
Minister of State for Information Technology and Telecommunication (IT) Shaza Fatima Khawaja on Saturday said that efforts were underway to reroute an additional 200 gigabytes per second shortly.
In a statement, the IT minister said that 630 gigabytes per second of the affected traffic had already been shifted to an alternative route.
“The disruption in internet services due to a fault in the AAE-1 submarine cable affected 1,000 gigabytes per second of data traffic,” she confirmed.
Her remarks came hours after the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said that there was no degradation of internet services across the country anymore after the issue was addressed through the incorporation of a temporary bandwidth into the system.
“[…] to address the issue of degradation of Internet services due to fault in AAE1 submarine cable on January 2, 2025 ad hoc bandwidth has been arranged and added in the system,” the PTA said in a brief statement.
The statement read that the PTA was actively overseeing the restoration efforts for the AAE-1 submarine cable and is committed to ensuring that all services remain stable during this period.
The authority had revealed last week that the internet and broadband users may experience disruptions as submarine cable AAE-1 near Qatar developed fault.
The fault was reported in the submarine cable AAE-1 near Qatar — one of the seven international undersea cables connecting Pakistan for international internet traffic.
Pakistan has been grappling with slow internet since last year, with the government consistently blaming submarine cable faults, while reports hint at possible experimentation with a “firewall” by authorities.
The internet slowdown has been especially hard for freelancers, which are more than two million and contribute to the country’s growth.
Not only have the courts been moved against slow internet as well as social media disruptions, but the government’s allies have also expressed dismay over the persistent issues inside and outside the parliament.
In a swipe at his ally, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto questioned why fish seem to target only Pakistan’s undersea fibre optic cables.
According to a list issued by Ookla Speedtest Global Index, Pakistan was ranked 100 out of 111 countries in mobile internet speeds with a download speed of 20.61Mbps and upload speed of 8.53Mbps.
