The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) wsaid social apps have been suffering from slowdowns because of having the most users.
The National Assembly was informed that recent internet disruptions in Pakistan have heavily impacted Meta’s Facebook and WhatsApp. The regulator claimed that in Pakistan, among all social media platforms, META’s Facebook has a significantly large user base of around 50 million. It further said META’s WhatsApp is among the most popular real-time applications under use. Any slowdown or degradation on META and WhatsApp is most likely to be noticed as compared to other platforms, PTA added.
PTA officials said the slowdown stemmed from two major submarine cable issues: the SMW4 cable cut in June 2024, which led to a data loss of 1.5 terabytes per second, and a subsequent fault in the AAE-1 cable which caused a data shortfall of 0.25 terabytes per second. During peak hours, internet users were told in advance to expect slower speeds and telecom operators redirected traffic to alternative routes to minimize the impact.
In August, the PTA received an increase in user complaints specifically about disruptions in WhatsApp service, prompting immediate directives to telecom operators to address the issue.
Officials said the matter was taken up by PTA with the Telecom Operators for troubleshooting and resolution. The public was also kept informed through a press release issued on 22nd August 2024.
They explained that the situation began improving in mid-August 2024 and by the first week of September, META services and WhatsApp performance were reported as acceptable across their networks. Officials tried to reassure the National Assembly that the SMW4 cable is expected to be repaired in October 2024, after which the situation should further improve and become normal.
It’s all false explaintion.
Why only Pakistani are suffering, non in other countries.
Damaged cables are instantly repaired by concerned but in our case it’s taking half a dozen month.