Pakistan Telecommunications Limited (PTCL) informed Dawn.com on Thursday that there is currently no definitive timeframe for resolving the issues of slow internet speeds or repairing the Asia-Africa-Europe-1 (AAE-1) subsea cable.
Internet users in Pakistan have been facing slower speeds and disrupted access to services throughout 2024, with complaints rising across the country.
On January 3, PTCL acknowledged the disruptions caused by a fault in the AAE-1 cable, which connects Pakistan to global internet infrastructure, and assured users that their teams were working hard to resolve the issue.
The following day, IT Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja stated that approximately 80% of the bandwidth loss had been recovered by rerouting traffic through two other cables.
In a recent statement, PTCL spokesperson Aamir Pasha mentioned that additional bandwidth had been added to alleviate the internet slowdown, and this had largely resolved the issue. However, users may still experience slower speeds on Meta platforms, such as WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram, particularly during peak hours.
PTCL expects the problem to be fully resolved in the coming days but has not provided a precise timeline. The company reassured that both PTCL and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) are working closely to expedite the resolution.
PTCL’s technical team indicated that such issues typically take two to three months to fully fix.
