Internet services ‘fully restored' across Pakistan after three months

Internet services have been fully restored across Pakistan, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) confirmed, following months of repair work on two undersea cables responsible for major connectivity issues.

According to PTA spokesperson Malahat Obaid, the SMW-4 submarine cable—initially damaged on June 17—has been successfully repaired, restoring full internet services to the country. "The problem in the SMW-4 cable has now been completely removed," Obaid said, adding that internet traffic has returned to optimal levels.

The internet outage, which significantly impacted Pakistan’s connectivity, worsened in August with a second fault in the AAE-1 cable on August 17, leading to a loss of 250 gigabits per second (GBPS) of data. After extensive repairs, PTA confirms that this issue has also been resolved, restoring an additional 1,750 GBPS of data capacity.

To prevent future disruptions, Obaid noted that Pakistan recently added the PEACE cable in 2023 to boost bandwidth and reliability. Additionally, three new cables—two by Transworld Associates (TWA) and one by Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL)—are slated to further enhance the nation’s internet connectivity within the next two years.

Nine major failures

In total, the submarine internet cable connecting Pakistan has experienced nine major failures between 2021 to 2024.

Pakistan's leading software association and civil society organizations had accused that internet disruptions and slowdowns were due to the Pakistani government's efforts to install a firewall, amid concerns for silencing dissent and the impact on the digital economy.

Internet speeds dropped by 30-40% in August 2024, costing IT companies hundreds of millions of dollars.