KARACHI: Pakistan’s internet users are bracing for another round of service degradation as state-owned Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) announced planned maintenance on a critical international submarine cable beginning today, barely 24 hours after a similar disruption by private operator Transworld Associates concluded.
Internet slowdown expected across Pakistan as submarine cable maintenance begins
The repair work, scheduled to run from Tuesday, April 14 through Monday, April 20, will affect one of the SEA-ME-WE family submarine cable systems—infrastructure that carries a substantial portion of the country’s international internet traffic. PTCL confirmed the maintenance is being conducted by an international cable consortium to address a fault on the system.
“Internet services may experience degradation during the maintenance window, with users likely to encounter slower speeds, higher latency, and intermittent connectivity issues,” PTCL said in its advisory. The impact is expected to be most pronounced during peak evening hours when internet usage typically surges across the country.
The timing of the announcement has raised concerns among internet users and businesses already fatigued from last week’s disruptions. Private bandwidth provider Transworld Associates (TWA) had conducted maintenance from April 9 to April 13, affecting multiple cable systems including TW1, SMW-5, SEA-ME-WE 6, and 2Africa, causing nationwide slowdowns that impacted numerous internet service providers.
It is important to mention here that Pakistan’s international connectivity relies heavily on a limited number of submarine cable systems, including variants of SEA-ME-WE 4, SEA-ME-WE 5, and AAE-1. When one system requires maintenance or repairs, traffic is rerouted through backup pathways, but these alternative routes often lack the capacity to handle peak-hour demand, resulting in noticeable service degradation.
Menawhile, officials at PTCL have advised users to schedule bandwidth-intensive activities—including large downloads, uploads, and video conferencing—during morning hours or non-peak times when possible. The company recommended monitoring official PTCL channels and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) announcements for updates on repair progress and estimated completion times.
While the disruption is unlikely to cause complete outages for most users, streaming services, video calls, and large file transfers may be significantly affected during evening hours. Users dependent on PTCL’s international gateways—which encompasses a substantial portion of Pakistan’s internet user base—are expected to experience the most noticeable impact.
Some private internet service providers that rely on PTCL’s infrastructure or the same submarine cable systems are also set to face service degradation during the maintenance period.
