Pakistan Telecommunication Limited (PTCL) has said that no time frame can be given for the slowdown of the internet or the repair of the submarine cable Asia Africa Europe One. In the year 2024, internet users across Pakistan complained about slow internet, including difficulties in accessing social media apps. In a statement issued by PTCL on January 3, it was said that teams are working to resolve the problems faced by users after the network speed in the country slowed down due to a fault in the AAA-1 internet cable connecting Pakistan. A day later, Minister of State for Information Technology Shaza Fatima Khawaja said that about 80 percent of the bandwidth shortage has been resolved as traffic has been shifted to two other cables. PTCL spokesperson Amir Pasha said that to deal with the slowdown, PTCL has arranged additional bandwidth, which has solved the problem of slow internet to some extent. However, the telecom operator says that services owned by Meta Some users may experience slowdowns on WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram, especially during rush hours.
The PTCL statement further said, “We expect that this issue will be fully resolved in the next few days. PTA and PTCL are working diligently to ensure the issue is resolved as soon as possible.” Later, Amir Pasha said that the bandwidth shortage has been resolved. PTCL’s technical staff said that it takes 2 to 3 months to resolve such issues, but the PTCL spokesperson did not comment on this claim.