ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) announced on Wednesday that some users in the country may experience slower internet speeds on Thursday morning, April 21, due to maintenance work on the international submarine cable that provides Internet services to Pakistan.
Faults in the submarine cable that powers Internet services in Pakistan have disrupted speeds nationwide several times in the recent past. In February 2022, a submarine cable cut caused degradation in Internet service across Pakistan.
The fault was reported near a distance of almost 400 km off the coast of Pakistan near the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
“A power reconfiguration activity on a section of the international submarine cable, SMW4, will be undertaken on April 21, 2022, from 2 a.m. to 7 a.m.,” said the PTA.
“This may cause some Internet users to experience downgraded speeds during the mentioned time only,” it added.

The authority said it was taking alternate measures to meet capacity requirements and ensure uninterrupted Internet services to all users, with an intent to “return to full functionality” as quickly as possible.
“The availability of Internet services will be as usual throughout the country,” it added.
Earlier, a fault in the AAE-1 cable in December 2021 had also slowed down Internet traffic during peak hours.
In October last year, a fault in the submarine cable AAE-1 near Fujairah also caused degradation in services across Pakistan.
The AAE-1 is one of the six international submarine cables landing in Pakistan.
According to the PTA’s statistics, Pakistan has a total of 110 million broadband subscribers. International e-commerce platforms and investors have been pouring a lot of money into Pakistan to promote online markets.