Forbes StaffPakistan has seen a slowdown in the internet, impacting businesses and the lives of millions of users.
Pakistan has experienced an internet slowdown. The problem has affected millions of users, impacting businesses and people’s lives. For the past several days, Pakistan has been grappling with the issue of a slowdown in internet speeds, which has caused widespread frustration among users and allegations of the installation of a national firewall.
Internet slowdown in Pakistan.
Over the last couple of weeks, Pakistan has been experiencing an internet slowdown, which has caused trouble sending and downloading media files and voice notes through messaging apps like WhatsApp, even when connected to broadband networks. The internet slowdown also affected businesses that rely heavily on stable internet connections for communicating with international clients and managing operations.
Warning by the Pakistan Software House Association.
The Pakistan Software House Association, which represents Pakistan’s IT sector, has also warned citizens that the internet issues would cost the fragile economy up to $ 300 million. It also raised concerns that the government might be hastily implementing a national firewall, potentially causing these slowdowns, which is a claim that the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has denied.
A faulty submarine cable.
The country’s telecom authority, PTA, has also been blamed for a faulty submarine cable. PTA Chairman Retired Major General Hafeezur Rehman, in a meeting with the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on IT on Wednesday, reported to Dawn.com that the internet slowdown was primarily due to damage to one of the submarine cables (SMW4). He assured the committee that the cable was expected to be repaired by August 28, after which normal internet speeds should resume.
Regarding allegations regarding a firewall’s installation, Rehman said that the government was only upgrading its web management system to bolster cybersecurity and not curbing the internet, as some had speculated. However, India, too, was blamed for this. The telecom authority reported a severe degradation of around 1.5 Tbps in internet traffic on August 15 and linked it to Indian state actors, claiming they had been active over the past few years on national days to “degrade internet services or deface government websites.”
