Internet in Pakistan went down
Suffering through the hands of my worn-down internet, I was on the verge of calling my internet provider and give them a piece of my mind when I found out that it wasn’t just my connection. It was (pretty much) everyone’s internet and everyone was equally annoyed.
It’s not just you, Internet all over Pakistan has been pretty slow lately
Internet connections, all over Pakistan, began showing connectivity issues today and it was hard to figure out why was it happening so.
People in many of my chats had been wondering why the internet in Pakistan was so bad last evening particularly and there were weird rumors
Many of us were under the delusion that the internet issues and the Islamabad Rally might be related somehow. After affirmation from more than one person, the conclusion deduced was that I wasn’t the only one suffering. *phew*
Turns out there was a less exciting reason why the whole country’s internet was down
According to the authorities, major submarine cables connecting Pakistan with the outside world had gone offline… just like that.
Around 5 pm, internet throughout Pakistan went down and at first nobody could figure out why. Two of the major submarine cables, IMEWE and SEAMEWE 4, that carry almost 50% of Pakistan’s internet traffic suffered a fault and caused this massive internet issue. The location of the fault within the cables is yet to be identified.
Furthermore, ISP’s have also confirmed the outage and have also claimed to have been trying to shift the load to other submarine systems.
this explains it: pic.twitter.com/HBmiPkZ6rC
— h (@HaadeaP) October 29, 2019
The PTA hasn’t exactly given a timeframe about when the repair of the submarine cables will finish so internet in Pakistan might remain slow for some of you, still
The Pakistan telecommunication Authorities are unsure regarding the time that it may take to repair the cables and get the internet back on track. However, it is being assumed that the repair may take several hours!
PTA officials, however, gave out a statement for the inconvenience, stating that their technical teams were working on it to fix the repair.
Due to some fault in international submarine cables at around 5 pm today, users can face some problems in internet…
Gepostet von Pakistan Telecommunication Authority am Dienstag, 29. Oktober 2019
PTCL also issued a statement of their own
Important Update: This is to inform you that the rectification efforts by the international submarine cable consortium are ongoing.
Meanwhile, our technical teams are constantly working to minimize the impact on our valued customers.
Thank you for your patience. pic.twitter.com/WMbixpQtgT
— PTCL (@PTCLOfficial) October 29, 2019
And they kept giving updates on the matter
We regret to inform you that due to international submarine cable fault, internet services are impacted across Pakistan.
Our technical teams are working on fully restoring internet services. We apologize for any inconvenience caused and thank you for your patience. pic.twitter.com/PGh1r6OGB8
— PTCL (@PTCLOfficial) October 29, 2019
And they’ve apparently managed to fix the issue, for now
Good News! We are pleased to inform you that the SMW-4 submarine cable fault has been rectified and internet services have been restored.
We regret any inconvenience caused and thank you for your patience. pic.twitter.com/hKvE8RcznF
— PTCL (@PTCLOfficial) October 29, 2019
Of course, this isn’t the first time such a cable “fault” has happened but this is also not even the first time this is happening within just this year LOL
Back in June something similar happened and PTCL had to issue a similar statement about some cable cuts.
Important Update: Due to multiple cable cuts, internet services were impacted which have been partially restored in many areas.
PTCL is working on fully restoring the network. We apologise for any inconvenience caused & thank you for your patience. pic.twitter.com/6GpCBBHgaZ
— PTCL (@PTCLOfficial) June 24, 2019
People are super annoyed at the moment and honestly, the wait for the internet to be right back on is super ‘exhausting’. But I guess many people’s internet seems to have been fixed for now.
Cover image via: Google.com / @PTCLOfficial via Twitter