Pakistan suffers slow internet speed due to submarine cable fault

From the  past several days, users throughout Pakistan have been suffering slow internet speed. According to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), the cause is a submarine cable fault.

On Tuesday, Pakistan’s internet speed was lowered by one terabyte due to a breakdown in underwater cables, prompting the PTA to shift internet traffic to other lines. The news came hours after a breakdown in the South East Asia–Middle East–Western Europe 4 (SEA-ME-WE 4) submarine cable, which became the cause of slow internet speed in Pakistan.

According to PTCL, switching to other channels has resulted in “better customer experience with no significant impact on services.”

The AAE-1 is a 25,000-kilometer consortium cable system that connects Southeast Asia and Europe through Egypt. It links Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore to Myanmar, India, Pakistan, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Yemen, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Greece, Italy, and France.

The AAE-1 cable system uses transmission technology consisting of 100 gigabytes per second, with a minimum design capacity of 40 terabytes per second.

According to the sources, the restoration process of submarine cable fault would take some time. By January 2022, the SEA-ME-WE 4 should be repaired.

On the brighter side, talks with Starlink, a US-based satellite internet provider, have progressed, and Pakistan will soon have high-speed internet throughout the country.