Fault in international submarine cable near Karachi slows Internet across Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority said on Tuesday a fault in an international submarine cable near the port city of Karachi had slowed Internet speeds across the country but steps were being taken to fix the issue and “alternative arrangements” had been made to provide uninterrupted service to customers.
The fault was in the AAE-1 (Asia-Africa-Europe-1) international submarine cable, one of six international submarine cables landing in Pakistan. It runs from South East Asia to Europe across Egypt, connecting Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar, India, Pakistan, Oman, UAE, Qatar, Yemen, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Greece, Italy, and France.
The AAE-1 cable system deploys 100 gigabytes per second transmission technology, with a minimum design capacity of 40 terabytes per second.
“One of the international submarine cables at sea near Karachi has reported a malfunction which caused some disruption in Internet traffic,” PTA said on Twitter. “However, alternative arrangements are being made by the relevant service providers to provide additional bandwidth and requirements to provide uninterrupted Internet services to the customers. Steps are being taken to fix the problem, but it may take time.”
“PTA has directed the operators to ensure uninterrupted Internet services under alternative arrangements,” the authority added. 
In October this year, AAE-1 was reportedly cut near Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, causing Internet services across Pakistan to be disrupted, with users reporting sluggish performance on their connections.
Internet services were also disrupted countrywide in February this year when one of the six international submarine cables developed a fault near Abu Talat, Egypt. The fault was later repaired by Trans World Associates, one of the two license holders for international landing stations of submarine cables.