PTA chairman says ‘faulty submarine cable’ causing countrywide slow internet

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority on Wednesday attributed the nationwide slow internet to a “faulty submarine cable” and clarified that no firewalls were being installed, after drawing criticism from both lawmakers and the public.

Internet speeds have declined significantly in recent weeks, and users are having difficulty sending or downloading media and voice notes over WhatsApp when connected to mobile data, as well as suffering poor browsing rates even on broadband.

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The business community and internet service providers (ISPs) claimed that the government’s measures to control internet traffic, including a so-called ‘firewall’, caused digital services to slow down, resulting in economic losses.

While Shaza Fatima Khawaja, the country’s information technology minister, admitted that the government was modernizing its “web management system” to deal with cyber security risks, she emphatically disputed reports that the government was “throttling” the Internet.

During a hearing of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on IT today, PTA Chairman Retired Major General Hafeezur Rehman was grilled by NA members over numerous concerns regarding internet slowdowns around the country.

“The internet slowdown in the country is due to a faulty submarine cable, which is expected to be repaired by August 28,” according to Rehman.

He also noted that the government’s web management system, not the firewall, was being improved.

“In my opinion, the internet should not slow down due to an upgrade,” he told me. “The telecom [sector] has suffered a loss of [Rs] 300 million.”

Several senators questioned the PTA chief at the meeting, expressing their dissatisfaction with the ongoing internet troubles. They demanded an explanation for why TikTok was occasionally stopped down, the internet was frequently sluggish, and firewalls were periodically enforced.

“You have been asked a direct question,” PPP Senator Sharmila Farooqi informed the PTA chairman. “Has a firewall been installed or not?”

Rehman answered that the PTA had no part in the internet outage and blamed it on technical reasons.

“Every country, including Afghanistan, has its own system,” he said.

MQM Senator Mustafa Kamal stated that corporations have been urged not to conduct business in Pakistan due to internet concerns.

“Based on your briefing, it appears that there is no issue in Pakistan,” he told the PTA chief. “So is it really the case that all is well in the country despite all the hue and cry?”

Barrister Gohar Ali Khan of the PTI questioned the social media site X’s protracted prohibition, wanting to know why it was suspended and when it will be released.

In answer, the PTA chairman stated that he had no more information about the situation than the committee members had.

The committee expressed objection to the prohibition, claiming that such limitations impede the country’s growth. They also asked information on the IT parks in Islamabad and Karachi.

The PTA chairman expressed optimism that the continuing internet difficulties would be resolved by August 27, noting that VPNs were not and cannot be blocked in the nation.

“I never stated that VPNs were being restricted,” he told me. “The country would experience slow internet for another six days.”

Meanwhile, Amin ul Haq, chairman of the committee, requested the government to make 5G services accessible in Pakistan by March.

He voiced displeasure that, despite major efforts toward the 5G auction, Pakistan still lacked the technology, whilst other nations were moving forward with 6G.

“If 5G cannot be introduced by December, it must be done by March to meet public expectations,” stated Mr. Obama.

LHC seeks ‘clause-wise’ response from govt

Separately, on Wednesday, the Lahore High Court (LHC) rejected the federal government lawyer’s answer to the country’s internet slowdowns and requested a clause-by-clause response at the next hearing.

As Justice Shakil Ahmad continued hearing a petition challenging the disruptions, the PTA, the federal government, the information and law ministries, and others filed answers in the case.

The PTA lawyer agreed in court that the country’s internet speed has fallen, citing four reasons.

He detailed causes stated in the PTA’s assessment, including a broken underwater cable, an internet company’s “mishandling” on July 31, a cyber attack on August 15, and excessive usage of VPNs, which impeded internet speed.

Justice Ahmad then rejected the federal government lawyer’s statement and requested that he produce a clause-by-clause rebuttal at the next hearing.

He also told the petitioner to change his plea and then file it. The hearing was subsequently deferred until Tuesday, August 27.

PTA lists 4 reasons for cyber slowdown

In its answer to the LHC, which is posted on Dawn.com, the PTA cited four causes for sluggish internet connection across the nation.

The first cause was the “cutting of one of the submarine cables (SMW4) for the last month or so,” which it said lowered inland capacity by 1.5 terabits (Tbit) per second.

In another case, the PTA reported a 70% drop in internet services, which was tracked down to a large internet service provider (ISP) committing a “severe misconfiguration in their core network”. The statement said that “stern action was taken against the defaulters,” resulting in the termination of three senior technical managers of the ISP.

The third event included a “severe degradation of around 1.5tbps” in internet traffic entering the nation on August 15, which the PTA identified as Indian National Day. Later investigations, according to the PTA, revealed that the dip “might be due to some distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack”.

The authority also stated that Indian state actors have been engaged in the previous several years on national days such as August 14 to “degrade internet services or deface government websites”.

Finally, the PTA blamed the growing usage of VPNs over the time, noting that slower speeds reported by VPN users were caused by “inbuilt encryption, tunnelling, and long routing of [data] packets”. “This can be attributed to the slow internet response to the VPN users during this time,” according to the statement.