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Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) announced Saturday that internet disruptions in the country are likely due to submarine cable cuts near Jeddah in Saudi Arabian waters.
The company’s statement explained that these cuts impacted part of the bandwidth provided by the SMW4 and IMEWE undersea cables, two vital cables linking Pakistan to regional and global networks.
International partners are currently prioritizing efforts to repair the damaged links, while local teams are working to arrange alternative bandwidth to lessen the impact on users.
“We appreciate our customers’ patience and understanding during this period,” the statement added.
Data from Downdetector revealed that outage reports surged on Saturday morning, with issues accumulating overnight before complaints spiked around 9 a.m. At 10:09 a.m., over 16 outage reports were recorded.
Earlier this year, Pakistan connected to the Africa-1 submarine cable, a 10,000-kilometer-long fiber optic link that delivers high-capacity internet connectivity to neighboring countries, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, and France. This project, approved by PTCL’s Board of Directors in November 2020 with a $59.5 million budget, is expected to be operational by the first quarter of 2026.
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