Nationwide internet services expected to remain slow until cable repairs completed by October: PTA

Internet services across the country are expected to remain slow till “early October” as the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said on Wednesday that the submarine cable responsible for the disruptions would likely be repaired by then.

Internet speeds have witnes­sed a considerable decline over the past few weeks, and users are facing difficulties in sending or down­loading media and voice notes through WhatsApp when connected to mobile data, and experiencing slow browsing speeds, even on broadband.

The business community and internet service providers (ISPs) had alleged that the government’s efforts to monitor internet traffic — including a so-called ‘firewall’ — had caused the slowdown of digital services, resulting in economic losses.

While the country’s information techno­logy minister, Shaza Fatima Khawaja, had confirmed that the government was upgrading its “web management system” to cope with cyber security threats, she has categorically denied rep­orts of the government “throttling” the internet.

The PTA, on the other hand, had last week blamed the internet slowdown on a faulty submarine cable, while dismissing fears that the state was installing a firewall.

In a statement issued today, the PTA said the cyber slowdown was due to two submarine cables, one of which was yet to be repaired.

“The ongoing internet slowdown across the country is mainly due to [a] fault in two (SMW4, AAE-1) of the seven international submarine cables connecting Pakistan internationally.

“It is updated that [the] fault in SMW-4 submarine cable is likely to be repaired by early October 2024,” the telecom authority said.

“Submarine cable AAE-1 has been repaired which may improve internet experience,” the PTA highlighted.

A week ago, PTA Chairman Hafeezur Rehman, a retired major general, had said the damaged submarine cable would be repaired by August 27.

The PTA chief had made the claim before a National Assembly panel, where he faced tough questions from both the government and the opposition lawmakers.

Amnesty International has called on Pakistani authorities to provide greater transparency on the nationwide internet slowdown and the use of monitoring and surveillance technologies.

Reasons for cyber slowdown

Doug Madory, an internet expert, did endorse the claim regarding the fault in the submarine cables, saying the reduced internet capacity for Pakistan was due to a fault in submarine cables.

“We can see that PTCL (AS17557) lost transit from TMnet (AS4788), NTT (AS2914) and Lumen (AS3356) as a result of the SMW-4 failure on June 17th. It recently regained Lumen, but these losses would indeed result in reduced capacity for Pakistan,” Madory said in a post on X on Aug 21.

However, speaking to Gadinsider, Madory pointed out that the submarine cable break had occurred in June and if the internet issues “started in the past couple of weeks, then there must be another factor at play” than that cable damage.

According to today’s PTA statement, the cable yet to be repaired is SMW-4 — the same one that Madory said faced a fault on June 17.

The PTA has listed four reasons before the Lahore High Court (LHC) for the slowdown — a damaged submarine cable, a misconfiguration in an ISP’s system, possible cyber-attacks on August 15, and the increased use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) for those using them.

The government has also blamed the widespread use of VPNs, which have seen increased usage due to the prolonged ban on social media platform X.

Earlier this month, the PTA, referring to its plan to regulate the use of VPNs, clarified it was whitelisting them through an “automated process” to ensure the “smooth and secure functioning of the IT services and online businesses”.

Possible losses to economy

The Telecom Operators Association has warned that the sluggish internet could cost Pakistan almost Rs12 billion annually.

Incidentally, the corresponding loss to exchequer due to reduced revenue of the telecom sector will be in excess of Rs3bn annually,“ it further said.

The Pakistan Business Council (PBC) has also sounded the alarm on several multinational companies planning to relocate their back offices from Pakistan.

the Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) had earlier said the country’s economy could lose up to $300 million due to internet disruptions caused by the imposition of a national firewall.