ISLAMABAD: Internet users across Pakistan are likely to experience slow browsing speeds on October 14 as a maintenance activity is scheduled on one of the country’s submarine cables.
According to an announcement by the service provider, PTCL, the international cable consortium will carry out repairs on a faulty repeater, with work beginning around 11am PST and expected to last up to 18 hours.
During this period, customers may face noticeable degradation in internet performance. The PTC has expressed regret over the inconvenience caused to users.
Last month, internet services across Pakistan faced partial disruptions during peak hours after submarine cables were cut near Jeddah, the PTCL Group had said.
Internet service down across Pakistan, PTCL backbone hit
The company said bandwidth on submarine cables SMW4 and IMEWE has been affected. “There may be a minor decline in internet quality, but efforts are being made to minimise the impact,” a PTCL spokesperson stated.
International partners have already started repair work on the damaged cables, while PTCL’s local teams are busy providing alternate bandwidth to keep services stable.
Users across the country had also experienced slowness and performance issues with Meta‑owned apps (including WhatsApp), especially during peak hours, of which the the PTCL to be communicating with the Meta headquarters. “It has been observed that users across Pakistan are currently experiencing disruptions in making WhatsApp calls only.” Later in the day, telecommunication officials had restored the full service.