Two major submarine cables that connect Pakistan with the outside world just went offline, ProPakistani has confirmed.
As per details available with ProPakistani, IMEWE and SEAMEWE 4, which carry almost 50% of Pakistan’s internet traffic, went offline due to a fault at a location that’s yet not determined.
Update (2100 PST Oct 29, 2019)
A third submarine cable system, AAE-1, also went down partially. Experts said that this new outage is only going to worsen the service quality.
As a result, Pakistani internet users will continue to face degraded internet speeds until the faults in cable systems are fixed.
ISPs confirmed ProPakistani of the outage and said that they are in process of shifting the load to other submarine systems, which will balance the load to an extent. However, services may be degraded until the full restoration of IMEWE and SEAMEWE 4.
A spokesman of PTCL confirmed the outage and said that the customers may experience slow browsing. “Technical teams are working on fully restoring internet services in the shortest possible time”, she added.
No timeframe has been communicated regarding the repair of both impacted submarine cables, sources confirmed ProPakistani. PTA spokesperson, however, confirmed that full restoration of both the cables could take hours.
It may be recalled that Pakistan is connected with the outside world through six submarine cables, a number that’s surpassed by all regional countries. Oman, for instance, a country way smaller than Pakistan, has a lot more submarine cables landing there.
With internet users reaching 70 million, and at a time when the introduction of 5G is on the cards, it’s high time for the government encourages new investments in the sector.
Experts said that any new cable will not only enhance quality of service but will be vital for further economic growth of the country.
Update (0315 PST Oct 30, 2019)
Both the impacted submarine cables have been fully restored to full working capacity after the faults were fixed by the technical teams.
Internet speeds are now back to normal again.
Amir couple years back you posted a news here that Stormfiber and Jazz will be getting their own undersea cable within a year… So what happened there?
If you are talking about 96 tb internet cable, it won’t be online before Q1 2020
So do you mean that work on that cable is already underway? And who will operating that cable?
Transworld company trying to stop this new PEACE cable because they are scared it will affect the business of Transworld. They are now planning to use the influence of Egyptian billionaire Naguib Swairis and Pakistan conglomerate Saif Group to block any new submarine cable and protect their interest above Pakistan National Interest. May Allah make this evil scheme unsuccessful.
Swairis is citizen of Egypt which has more than 20+ Internet cables and this gentleman is trying to stop Pakistan from getting the 6th or 7th cable!!!
Pak-China fiber under CPEC already laid and inaugurated in July 18, Why it is not being used?? Do you have any update regarding this ?
Transworld is running their business on 50 years old TYCO technology. Any new cable system can vanish their business in few days.
If this is true Pakistani intelligence agencies ISI MI and IB and COAS must take note and stop this chaal!
BTW wasn’t the PEACE cable supposed to launch soon?
2 cables going offline is not accident….coincidence i dont think so!
Oh dear! It’s a cyclone “Kyarr” which damaged the cable systems. Actually, during cyclone Cargo ships drag from their position and anchor damage the cable. Sometime internet traffic normalise by itself after stabilization of shut fault and sometime there is a cable break which needs restoration until cable repair finish.
how much time i ll take to fix up
internet is messed up for at least a month
Which internet service provider is running fine?
So far, Jazz is working great
Please let me know if any other provider is working fine.
Zong too is working fine for me.
No news regarding IMEWE and SEAMEWE 4 disruption even on their website.
Where is Pak China Fiber Optic Link ???
Why it is not made active ???
In July 2018 more than a year ago Pak-China Fiber Optic cable projected was completed under CPEC, Why it is not made operational ???
Propakistani reported on 13 July 2018 about inauguration ceremony chaired by care taker PM:
“The Pak-China Fiber Optic Cable, which connects Pakistan with China through Khunjerab, was inaugurated and put into service earlier today.
According to details available with ProPakistani, the Pak-China Fiber Optic Cable covers a distance of 822 kilometers and runs from Rawalpindi till Khunjerab pass to connect with China.
The cable will be operated and maintained by Special Communication Organization. Huawei Technologies deployed the project at a total cost of $44 million.
The Inauguration Ceremony for the Fiber Optic Cable took place at Pak-China Friendship Center earlier today. The chief guest of the event was Prime Minister of Pakistan Justice (R) Nasirul Mulk.”
Zong, Telenor and Wancom are not working.
Any further update on this?
Its because of the storm in Arabian sea. repair will take days.
Yep. Not sure about repairs tho, it should be done in 1 day.
Fake news. The Government needed an excuse to feed to the masses to slow down the internet so as to introduce their new surveillance system. This is just big brother stepping in to curb more control on what you do online. Cable ka bahana ab purana ho gaya. Get something new.
Take off your tin foil hat. Also, please take your medication in the future before coming online. Thank you.
I think so Pakistan must think now for the new cables through which we can enhance the speed of the internet, plus benefit for the country. PM @ImranKhan sir please look into this matter so that we can boost up the economy of the country through finnancial help. Technology is the backboon of any country.
lol ” Technology is the backboon of any country.”
hahahahaha sorry its backbone not that boon :-p
aprox 150TB bandwidth main se 5TB ka link down hai
means k 100% main se lets say 10% down hai
and in realty sham se speed 10% bhe nahin a rahi.
Pakistan Submirine Cables
1. TW1 1.28Tbps
2. Sea-Me-We-3 480 Gbps
3. Sea-Me-We-4 1.28Tbps—>(down)
4. I-ME-WE 3.86Tbps—–>(down)
5. AAE-1 40Tbps
6. Sea-Me-We-5 24Tbps
7. Silk Route Gateway-1 20Tbps
8. PEACE 60Tbps
means kuch garbar hai :P
That explains the packet loss
Naseeb khan
Dear Aamir Attaa,
being a CTO of Tier-2 ISP WayLink (Pvt.) Limited, I confirm you that SEA-Me-We-4 Submarine Cable is still down (Confirmed by Upstream Today, dated 22-12-2019).
Please update your post accordingly.