![Documents reveal that an undersea cable failure caused a massive internet outage in Pakistan in 2024, resulting in a data shortage of 1.75Tbps.]()
by professional pakistani
October 25, 2024
by professional pakistaniPakistan has experienced massive and troublesome internet outages this year due to multiple undersea cable failures, resulting in a data capacity shortage of 1,750 Gbps, according to documents seen by ProPakistan.
The country faced four submarine cable failure incidents in 2024, affecting internet services nationwide.
Documents show there have been two minor outages and two major outages this year, with the SEAMEWE-5 cable severed near Egypt in February. Another disruption occurred on June 17 when the SEAMEWE-4 cable was severed near Karachi, resulting in a loss of 1,500 Gbps of data capacity.
On July 31, PTCL’s system configuration failure added to the network outage. The most recent incident occurred on August 17, when the AAE-1 cable failed, resulting in a 250 Gbps shortfall in internet service.
Pakistan has faced nine submarine cable failures in the past four years, highlighting the country’s vulnerability to such failures. Currently, Pakistan is connected to the global internet through seven submarine cables operated by PTCL, Transworld, and Cybernet.
These cables are essential to Pakistan’s internet connectivity and support the country’s internet capacity, which currently stands at 10,146 Mbps. In the event of a cable failure, carriers must notify the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) within two hours.
There are 293 FLL operators providing internet services across Pakistan. There are also 180 data CVAS operators that rely on FLL infrastructure to provide last-mile connectivity. There are a total of 473 internet service providers in the country, the document revealed.
Disruptions caused by failures in these submarine cables have an ongoing impact on the quality of Internet service.
PTA has issued updated Quality of Service (QoS) regulations that increase thresholds for system availability and download/upload speeds to keep pace with changes in technology.
In July 2024, seven ISPs were issued notices for failing to meet PTA’s key performance indicators (KPIs) following an investigation conducted by the regulator. A special investigation by the ISP in Gwadar led to the issue of show cause notice to the company in February 2024 for not meeting required KPIs.
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