More Internet Outages Expected Across Pakistan

Internet users in Pakistan are expected to face more internet outages as services might go down in the coming days due to damage caused by floodwater amid heavy monsoon rain in the province of Sindh. According to the details, the floods in the region are causing extensive damage to the fiber-optic cables in the upper Sindh area.

According to Dawn, a technical report submitted by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom on Wednesday stated that repeated internet outages are expected in Pakistan because of flood relief efforts in the Sukkur division where fiber-optic cables were being damaged mainly by the heavy machinery used to clear floodwater.

Taking notice of the repeated internet outages in Pakistan, the Ministry sought a report from the telecom sector regulator, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), which stated that multiple cuts in the fiber-optic cables were not caused due to sabotage or criminal activity but because of digging of trenches to divert or drain floodwater at various places.

According to PTCL, the last disruptions in internet service was reported on Aug 22 and 23 due to multiple fiber-optic cable cuts in Ghotki, Khairpur, and Sukkur Districts, while the most serious damage was reported in Tehsil Ranipur of Khairpur District.

Minister for IT and Telecom, Syed Aminul Haque told Dawn that situation was serious and more such incidents could be expected in the near future. “Due to extensive flooding, most of the pathways of underground cables have been submerged, as relief workers or locals were trying to divert floodwater by digging trenches on roads and footpaths,” he added.

“The ministry has directed PTCL to declare an emergency so that repair work could be initiated when any such incident is reported in the system, while the PTA is constantly monitoring the quality of service,” he said.

Pakistan uses around six terabytes of internet that is mainly supplied through seven submarine cables, of which four are operated by PTCL, two by Transworld Associates and a new cable that recently came online, owned by a Chinese company. However, the majority of internet traffic (almost 80%) comes through more than 50,000km widespread PTCL network, which has a capacity to carry 6.5-terabytes of data, of which only 70% is utilized so that traffic could be shifted to other cables in case of damages.

However, PTCL’s cable network isn’t just used by the company to provide its own services across the country, but a large number of other internet service providers (ISPs), including StormFiber, and NayaTel buy internet from PTCL, which is why damage to PTCL’s cable network results in major internet outages across the country.

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