In Pakistan, internet services to be fully functional as faulty cable fixed: PTA

Islamabad: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Tuesday said that the fault in submarine cable near Fujairah, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) which had caused nationwide disruption in internet speed, has been repaired. 

On its official twitter handle, PTA announced the update and wrote, “A submarine cable fault was reported yesterday near Fujairah, UAE due to which some users may have faced degradation in services”. 

It further added, “The faulty cable segment has been repaired and work is underway to make the services fully functional”.

PTA is monitoring the situation and will continue to update on it.

— PTA (@PTAofficialpk) October 12, 2021

The Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), in conjunction with the International Submarine Consortium, is working to fully restore normalcy across the country.

“We regret the inconvenience caused to our customers and will notify you as soon as the services are fully restored. Thank you for your patience”, said a PTCL spokesperson in a statement. 

The telecom regulator did not mention the timeline for the restoration of services.

Yesterday, slow internet speed was reported countrywide owing to a fault that occurred in a 25,000KM long major 40-terabyte submarine cable which connects South-East Asia to Europe and it was reportedly ruptured— causing internet services to slow down in various other countries of the region as well.

The work on effected cable is still underway, hence the repair to the AAE1 submarine cable may take several days.

Meanwhile, the concerned authorities are working to transfer the load of internet data traffic to other lower-capacity cables which will provide relief to internet users until the AAE1 submarine cable becomes fully operational.

Amid slow internet speed across Pakistan, ATM and bank services were affected as well.