Pakistan Telecommunications Limited (PTCL) said on Thursday that additional bandwidth had been arranged to rectify the problem of internet slowdown in Pakistan following a failure of Asia-Africa-Europe-1 (AAE-1), one of the seven International Navy ships . cables connecting Pakistan.

However, media reports indicated that PTCL did not give a specific time frame for repairing the fault. The reports said that both PTCL and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority were working hard to resolve the issue as soon as possible, though it may take a few days.

The PTA revealed last week that internet and broadband users may experience disruption as submarine cable AAE-1 developed a fault near Qatar. PTCL stated that Meta-related services – WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram – may be slowed down during peak hours.

After the failure, Information Technology (IT) Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja had said that efforts were on soon to divert another 200 gigabytes per second. She also said that 630 gigabytes per second of the affected traffic had already been moved to an alternative route.

Pakistan had been struggling with slow internet since last year, with the government consistently blaming submarine cable failures. The Internet slowdown was particularly hard on freelancers, who number more than two million and play a significant role in the country’s economic growth.

Despite these problems, Pakistan’s telecom sector is moving towards progress as the government took steps to improve the telecom and IT sector. The PTA cited the launch of the 2Africa cable project to address the bandwidth problem in the country.

The 45,000 kilometer long 2Africa project is the world’s largest undersea cable network, encircling the African coastline to connect Europe and the Middle East. It includes 46 landing stations in 33 countries, including Pakistan.

The landing site for the 2Africa Cable Project in Pakistan would be Hawkes Bay in Keamari Town of Karachi, with Trans World Associates as its local operators. 2Africa passes from Europe through the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and then back to Europe via the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.

According to data, Pakistan’s telecom revenue had reached Rs 955 billion from 2023 to 2024. In the country, telecom services are available to 91% of the population, while 81% of the population enjoys 4G services.

The data indicated that the number of mobile phone users has increased by 29% and household internet access by 20%. In addition, Pakistan has also joined the 37 countries in the world that have established WebTrust audited National Public Infrastructure.

(WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM NEWS DESK)