PTCL Services Went Down Due to Fault in Submarine Cable

Broadband subscribers in Pakistan are affected as there is a major failure in the India-Middle-Western Europe (IMEWE) submarine cable, which has impacted the entire area of South Asia. Broadband services of Pakistan Telecommunication Limited (PTCL) assists 80 percent of the broadband users in Pakistan.

PTCL Services Went Down Due to Fault in Submarine Cable

Also Read: Internet Speed Slows Down in Pakistan Due to Fault in Submarine Cable

The IMEWE is an ultra-high volume fiber optic cable system which links India and Europe through Middle East. Their three fiber pair system with overall length of almost 12,091 kilometers devises nine terminal stations of nine telecom carriers from eight countries, including Pakistan.

The maximum number of broadband subscribers affected by this submarine cable fault belong to PTCL. The cable fault has arose somewhere amidst United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Karachi.  According to the statistics from June 2014, Pakistan has 3.79 million broadband subscribers out of which 80% are the PTCL customers a fact which tells about the extent of people affected by this main breakdown.

PTCL Corporate Communication General Manager Imran Janjua, informed that maintenance activity by the IMEWE association on the undersea cable is presently in progress.

“The PTCL has ensured adequate bandwidth so its customers are not affected due to this disruption.”

He said.

He also added that restoration vessel had reached and repair work was being done, which will take a week to complete. The PTCL customers on the other hand have also been complaining about the slow surfing. One broadband customer, informed that the network has been down for the past two days.

According to Shoaib Sheikh from Wateen Telecom, the breakdown in the cable happened on December 28.

“Pakistan has a total of 360 gigabyte per second (Gbps) bandwidth, out of which only 250Gbps is available right now for all ISPs of Pakistan and distributed through Pakistan International Exchange and Transworld.”

Shoaib Sheikh said.

While talking to The Express Tribune Wahaj us Siraj, Internet Service Provider Association of Pakistan (ISPAK) founder member confirmed that one of the four submarine cables have been affected.