DNA

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Telecommunications Limited (PTCL) on Monday announced that users would experience degraded internet services tomorrow (Tuesday) as a submarine cable is being repaired.

In a post on X, PTCL said that maintenance work on the submarine cable will be carried out to repair a faulty repeater.

“The activity will start on October 14 … around 11am PST, which can last for up to 18 hours,” the telecom giant said. “During this period, customers will face Internet service degradation. We regret the inconvenience, please.”

Meanwhile, internet monitoring service Downdetector showed users reporting issues accessing social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram in Pakistan.

A screenshot of a graph showing user reports of Facebook outages over the past 24 hours in Pakistan. — Screengrab via Downdetector

Last month, PTCL warned that cuts to submarine internet cables in Saudi waters would likely impact internet services in the country during peak hours.

This is not the first time that damage to undersea internet cables has affected services in Pakistan.

Internet users across Pakistan complained of slow internet and hindered access to services throughout 2024.

On January 3 this year, PTCL said teams were “diligently” working to resolve the matter of disruptions faced by users after a fault in the AAE-1 subsea internet cable connecting Pakistan slowed down the network speed in the country. Full connectivity was later restored on January 16.