Pakistan Internet Speed 2025: Why It’s Still Among the Slowest

In 2025, millions of people in Pakistan rely on the internet for work, education, business, and daily communication. But despite this growing demand, the country still suffers from slow and unreliable internet. In remote areas, the situation is worse; some people can’t get connected at all.

This slow speed affects everyone: freelancers miss deadlines, students struggle with online classes, and small businesses lose customers. And the problem isn’t just with one company or service. It’s built into the system.

The Global Speed Gap: Where Pakistan Stands

Pakistan’s internet speed rankings continue to place it among the lowest in the world. According to Ookla’s Speedtest Global Index, the country currently ranks 143rd out of 152 nations for fixed broadband, with a median download speed of just 16.23 Mbps. Mobile internet fares slightly better but still trails far behind the global average, with Pakistan ranking 96th out of 103, delivering around 25.26 Mbps.

To put this in perspective, the global median for broadband stands at roughly 103 Mbps, while mobile averages hover near 91 Mbps. Even countries with similar economic profiles like Kenya, Bangladesh, or Vietnam have pulled ahead in terms of internet quality.

Speed gaps like this directly hurt Pakistan’s freelancers and digital businesses competing in the global marketplace. It’s not just about faster browsing. It’s about missed opportunities.

Submarine Cables: A Fragile Foundation

One of the major reasons for this underperformance lies beneath the surface, literally. Pakistan’s international connectivity is heavily reliant on undersea fibre-optic cables, which link the country to the global internet backbone.

Currently, Pakistan is connected through seven main submarine cable systems, including AAE-1, IMEWE, PEACE, and SEA-ME-WE 4/5/6. These cables land in a few key locations, primarily Karachi. This limited infrastructure makes the entire country vulnerable to disruptions when something goes wrong.

And go wrong it often does. In January 2025, the AAE-1 cable suffered a major fault near Qatar. Just two months later, a break in the PEACE cable near Egypt caused another slowdown. In both cases, users across Pakistan reported drastically reduced speeds and intermittent outages.

This isn’t new. In August 2024, a double cable cut had crippled nationwide speeds for days. The PTA at the time confirmed that certain services saw up to a 40% drop in speed, especially during peak hours.

Peering and Backhaul: The Domestic Drag

Even when Pakistan’s undersea internet cables are working fine, users still face slow speeds and connection drops. That’s because the problem isn’t just international; it’s also local.

Once internet data reaches Pakistan, it needs to travel across the country. This is done through a system called the backhaul network, a web of fiber-optic cables that carry data from one city or region to another. But in Pakistan, this system is weak and incomplete, especially outside major cities like Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad.

Another big issue is how internet companies share traffic with each other. This process is called peering. In many countries, internet providers connect directly through local Internet Exchange Points (IXPs). This keeps local data within the country, speeding things up.

But in Pakistan, there are only a few working IXPs. And most local internet traffic is routed through faraway servers in places like Frankfurt or Dubai. That means even if you send a message from Karachi to Lahore, the data might travel all the way to Europe and back before reaching its destination.

Our infrastructure is outdated and fragmented…We have failed to make the necessary investments in fibre‑optic networks that would bring our connectivity up to par with international standards.

–Shahzad Arshad, Chairman, Wireless and Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan

Currently, Pakistan has only a handful of functional IXPs. These are critical for routing traffic efficiently and cheaply but have seen little investment or regulatory support.

These poor peering practices increase delay (or latency), raise costs, and slow down the internet for everyone. Experts say this can be fixed by building more local IXPs and encouraging companies to work together instead of sending data overseas.

State-Sanctioned Setbacks: The Human-Caused Connectivity Crisis

Besides Pakistan’s technical problems like weak backhaul networks, undersea cable cuts, and poor peering, there’s another issue making the internet even worse: the government-ordered disruptions.

In recent years, the authorities have increasingly been using internet shutdowns and slowdowns to control access. These actions include nationwide outages, app-level blocks, and intentional throttling of speeds. Often, happening without any warning or clear explanation.

One of the biggest shutdowns took place on February 8, 2024, during the general elections. The government cut off mobile internet across the entire country, citing security concerns. That blackout affected more than 125 million people, disrupting banking apps, ride-hailing services, freelance work, and media coverage. But it wasn’t an isolated event.

In both 2023 and 2024, internet users across Pakistan experienced unexplained slowdowns. These were later linked to firewall tests conducted by the state. Services like YouTube, WhatsApp, and Google Docs were throttled for hours, often during peak work times. For many days, officials did not confirm or deny what was happening.

These state-ordered disruptions don’t just silence dissent. They weaken trust in digital systems and hurt the economy. Businesses lose money. Freelancers miss deadlines. Students and patients are cut off from online services they depend on.

 While national security is important, in hindsight, I would say, it could have been planned and managed better.

-Khuram Rahat, vice-chair of P@SHA

These deliberate shutdowns and degradations don’t just create short-term inconvenience; rather, they create long-term damage to Pakistan’s reputation as a reliable digital partner. Companies hesitate to invest in a country where digital access can be withdrawn overnight. Freelancers lose clients, businesses miss deliveries, and public trust erodes.

As one telecom policy expert put it privately:

The fiber may be laid, but if the switch is political, the signal is never secure.

At a time when Pakistan needs every megabyte of productivity to compete globally, these decisions act like the final nails in the coffin of digital connectivity.

Who Loses Out? The Everyday User

The result of this fragile and inefficient system is not just slower internet; it’s lost potential.

Freelancers, who depend on fast internet speed for large file transfers or virtual meetings, often lose international clients due to poor connection quality. Small businesses, especially those in remote areas, struggle to adopt digital tools, cloud services, or online payments. Students in underdeveloped regions remain disconnected from e-learning platforms. And in hospitals where telemedicine could make a difference, choppy video feeds and unstable networks continue to block progress.

It’s not just a tech issue—it’s a social and economic one. Connectivity is a human right in today’s world.

– Farah Aslam, a Digital Development Researcher

Pakistan Internet Speed 2025: How Can It Be Fixed?

Fixing Pakistan’s internet speed problem won’t happen overnight. But experts say the country can make real progress through a few clear steps.

First, Pakistan needs more undersea cable landing stations, especially outside Karachi. Right now, almost all cables land in one place, making the entire system fragile. Gwadar has been suggested as a backup site, but progress there has been slow.

Second, PTA needs to play a stronger role in managing internet quality. That means speeding up infrastructure approvals, setting fair rules for all internet providers & pushing for better service across the board. The Universal Service Fund could also help extend fibre networks into rural areas, but as recent reports show, the USF itself is facing delays and funding problems.

Third, local internet peering must improve. Pakistan needs to build more Internet Exchange Points (IXPs), making it easier for companies to share data directly, and get internet providers to work together instead of routing traffic through other countries.

Fourth, the country needs to improve last-mile fibre access. Right now, fast internet mostly reaches big cities. Without fibre running into smaller towns and rural areas, most of Pakistan will remain offline or poorly connected, no matter how good the international cables are.

And finally, perhaps most importantly, the government needs to understand that the internet is NOT a tool for control. The internet is not a luxury anymore; it is a basic utility, a vital part of education, business, and everyday life. It should never be treated as a switch to silence voices. Therefore, planned outages, internet throttling during protests, and bans on apps must end.