ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s online businesses risk losing nearly Rs200 million ($700,000) a day as Internet services slowed nationwide on Tuesday amid widespread disruption caused by “maintenance activity” on a major submarine cable, according to the Chain Store Association of Pakistan (CAP).
The slowdown followed announcements by major Internet providers, including Nayatel and the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), that emergency maintenance was being carried out on one of the country’s undersea cables.
Nayatel said in a post on X that the work, which began around 11 a.m., could last up to 18 hours and cause Internet slowness across Pakistan.
Mobile Internet services were also suspended in Islamabad and Lahore over the weekend following protests by the religio-political party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), whose activists clashed repeatedly with police.
“Our estimate is that when Internet services, both mobile and fixed broadband, are down nationwide for 24 hours, it causes approximately Rs200 million in daily losses,” Asfandyar Farrukh, the CAP chairman, told Arab News.
CAP represents more than 150 of Pakistan’s leading retail businesses and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
He added that the full financial impact of Tuesday’s slowdown could only be assessed after 24 hours of monitoring.
GIG ECONOMY
For gig-economy workers, however, the disruption means a complete loss of income.
Muhammad Riaz, an online cab driver, said slow or no Internet means he cannot feed his four children.
“It drives me crazy when the Internet is slow,” he said. “It takes half an hour just to get one ride. You know how Internet signals are in the streets. Even in normal places, it can get very difficult, extremely difficult.”
Riaz said he earned nothing when the Internet was down over the weekend, as he had to stay home.
“Ordinary people are the ones suffering the most,” he continued. “A daily-wage earner, if he doesn’t earn during the day, he can’t eat. How long can he feed his children like this?”
Adil Zahid, a food delivery rider, said outages make his work impossible.
“When we face signal issues here in Pakistan, our delivery work stops, which causes us major losses,” he said. “Our daily loss without Internet is around two to three thousand rupees [$7-$11].”
Zahid added that without Internet access, he cannot use navigation maps or receive orders.
Another delivery worker, Waseem Barkat, said the disruptions make it extremely difficult to contact customers or locate delivery points.
“When we go to different places, we can’t contact the customer because their number and location details don’t load properly,” he said. “Everything just shuts down in those areas.”
Digital rights experts say such disruptions ripple far beyond the gig economy, hampering productivity and eroding public confidence in the country’s digital infrastructure.
“Internet disruptions, whether planned or unplanned, inflict massive economic losses on online businesses, disrupt supply chains and erode customer trust,” said Haroon Baloch, a digital rights activist.
“In a digital economy where every second of downtime can translate to millions in losses for e-commerce platforms, freelancers and startups, these interruptions aren’t just inconveniences,” he continued. “They become barriers to growth and innovation.”
