Pakistan Still Struggling with Slow Internet Speeds Following Submarine Cable Fault

Internet users across Pakistan are facing significantly reduced browsing speeds due to a fault in the international submarine cable. The disruption has affected broadband connectivity nationwide, causing widespread inconvenience.

Officials from the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT) reported that 830 gigabytes per second of the impacted traffic have already been redirected to an alternative route. However, efforts are currently being made to redirect the remaining traffic.

On Saturday, IT minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja announced that a fault in the AAE-1 submarine cable caused a disruption in internet services, impacting 1,000 gigabytes per second of data traffic.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has announced a fault in the AAE-1 submarine cable located near Qatar. This cable is one of the seven international undersea cables that facilitate global internet connectivity for Pakistan. This situation could impact the online and broadband experience for users across Pakistan.

To address the situation, a temporary bandwidth was added to the system to restore services after the disruption caused by the cable fault on January 2, 2025. Although this has enhanced connectivity for numerous users temporarily, challenges with internet services continue to exist, resulting in certain regions still experiencing disruptions.