ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd. (PTCL) has warned users that they may face week-long Internet service disruptions starting today, Monday, due to maintenance work on one of its submarine cables.
In a post on social media platform X, PTCL wrote on Monday that it has planned a maintenance activity on one of its submarine cables to repair a fault by the International Cable Consortium. It said that the work will begin on Monday, May 11, and may continue till May 18.
“During this period, customers may experience Internet service degradation during evening hours,” PTCL said.
Screenshot of PTCL X account post
Pakistan has over 150 million Internet subscribers, most of them mobile broadband users, making it one of the largest online markets in the world. Several businesses in the country, including a large workforce of freelancers, consider the Internet crucial for their livelihoods.
However, Pakistani users frequently suffer from Internet service disruptions due to disturbances involving undersea cables. Maintenance work on one of Pakistan’s undersea cables in October 2025 disrupted Internet services for major Internet providers such as Nayatel and PTCL for almost a day.
State broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported in August 2025 that Pakistan planned to lay three new submarine Internet cables the same year in a bid to transform digital connectivity, expand bandwidth capacity and support the rollout of 5G services.
