PTCL says internet services gradually being restored across Pakistan

[SoRrY.]

KARACHI: Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has said internet services across Pakistan are being gradually restored after different parts of the country were disrupted early Saturday owing to a major fault in the international cable system IMV.

This was said by Imran Jangua, General Manager PTCL while talking to Geo News here Sunday afternoon.

A fault in IMEWE (India-Middle East-Western Europe) undersea cable near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia has been fixed and internet services are being gradually restored, he said. He, however, said work is still underway to fix the CMV 4.

Services would be fully restored within few hours, he added.

Internet subscribers reportedly faced difficulties in browsing due to the disruption in the 13000km-long IMV cable — extending from India till France — that was affected by a technical fault near Jeddah.

 “A fault in IMEWE in Saudi Arabia disrupted the internet in Pakistan in the wee hours of Saturday,” said Sikandar Naqi, chief business development officer (CBDO) PTCL. 

“The international consortium managing the submarine cable system has already started working to resolve the situation as early as possible.” 

Pakistan faced a similar internet outage last month when another international submarine cable system, SEA-ME-WE 4, broke down and was still under repair. 

On Saturday in his statement, Imran Janjua had said that maintenance teams outside Pakistan were working to repair the fault. “PTCL will be providing internet service through alternate source till the maintenance work is complete,” Janjua had said.

IMEWE submarine cable is an ultra high capacity fiber optic submarine cable system which links India & Europe via Middle East. This 3 fiber pair system with total length of approx. 12,091km is well complemented with nine terminal stations forming a consortium of 09 leading telecom carriers from 08 countries. 

It must be noted that PTCL  has recently announced to link the world’s biggest submarine cable consortium Asia-Africa-Europe 1 (AAE-1) in order to provide an alternative route to its customers and ramp up data carrying capacity.  

AAE-1, spanning over 25,000 kilometres, connects South East Asia to Europe via Egypt. The cable system will be constructed within the next 15 years.