Daily Times

KARACHI: Internet services were restored across the country on Sunday after disruption due to a fault in India-Middle East-Western Europe (IMEWE) submarine cable, which provides internet bandwidth to Pakistan, near Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.

According to an official of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), internet services have been restored across the country after the international company dealing with the undersea cable fixed the fault.

For the past 36 hours, Pakistan’s internet bandwidth was reduced to half making internet browsing close to impossible. The situation brought back memories of 90’s when loading a page took minutes and downloading a software from internet required hours. The fault had impacted PTCL broadband users, 3G/4G/LTE device, landline and corporate users. The problem was escalated owing to lack of backup as the other international cable system, SEA-ME-WE 4 was already under repair by the international consortium which led to the more serious situation. Internet users experienced difficulties in internet browsing speed and some even had no internet services at all owing to the fault in IMEWE.

PTCL had said earlier the international consortium had identified the fault in IMEWE cable near Saudi Arabia and was currently working to resolve the issue. On the other hands, telecom operators took to social media to take a jibe at PTCL and capitalize on the situation for access to 3G/4G services without disruption. People also took to Facebook and Twitter to blast out their frustrations on the situation.

Published in Daily Times, August 7^th 2017.