ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said on Wednesday a fault in a submarine cable that had caused hourslong Internet connectivity problems on Tuesday had been fixed.
PTA had said on Tuesday a dual cut had been reported in the terrestrial segment of the South East Asia–Middle East–Western Europe 5 (SEA-ME-WE 5) between the cities of Abu Talab and Zafrana in Egypt. Alternate arrangements to provide uninterrupted Internet services to users had been made and repair work was ongoing, the telecom authority had said.
“Faults in the terrestrial segment of SEAMEWE-5 were repaired at 2 AM PST. Internet services are operational as per normal routine,” PTA wrote on Wednesday morning.
The SEA-ME-WE 5 is a 20,000km submarine cable system connecting 17 countries through points-of-presence (POPs) from Singapore to the Middle East to France and Italy in Western Europe.
According to NetBlocks, a global Internet monitor service, the fault led to disrupted Internet connectivity in several countries, including Pakistan, Indonesia, Djibouti, Eritrea, Yemen, Oman, Somalia, and Chad.
Pakistan, a country of about 220 million people, has a large and growing Internet user base. According to the PTA, there are 116 million users of 3G and 4G services and 119 million broadband subscribers across the country.
