The internet users across Pakistan suffered another disruption on the internet when a 25,000 km-long Asia-Europe Double AE1 cable near the gulf broke down last night. The 40-terabyte underwater cable was ruptured near Fujairah, UAE after which Internet data traffic was diverted to other low-capacity cables.
What did the PTA say?
In a tweet on Tuesday, the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) said that the breakdown in a submarine cable could cause further problems for internet users in Pakistan.
“Internet speed in Pakistan has slowed down due to cable failure,” PTCL said in a statement on Twitter.
The PTA further said that the repair work of the cable has been completed and work is underway to make it fully operational. However, repairing 40 terabyte internet cables can take several days.
How does the Internet reach Pakistan anyway?
Pakistan has six underground cables and surface-to-ground resources. These cables connect the country to the rest of the world via the Internet and provide consumers with access to a wider world of information.
Both the submarine cables and fiber optic cables supplied from China, reach Pakistan through PTCL and government management to connect Pakistan with different countries of the world.
According to the Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan (ISPAK), an organization of Internet traffic in Pakistan, PTCL and Transworld are the bodies responsible for providing Internet in the country. As Internet service providers, PTCL and Transworld also provide data services to their customers. The rest of the private telecom companies and other ISPs also provide these services.
PTCL provides internet directly or through other means at more than 2,000 locations across the country. According to the data available regarding internet supply, PTCL provides internet with speeds of up to 100 Mbps in Pakistan. Combined with TransWorld and PTCL data, Pakistan as a whole has a bandwidth of 2500 Gbps.
When did the Internet reach Pakistan?
The Internet was introduced to the general public in Pakistan around 1993. At the time, it came as a UNDP-funded project called the Sustainable Development Networking Program. Initially only large corporations, foreign embassies and banks had access to it.
In 1995, a private company called DG-Com started providing its dial-up internet service from Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad with a speed of only 64 kbps. In the same year, Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited also started providing its dial-up service through its subsidiary called PakNet. Although Internet reached Pakistan much late than rest of the world, it did not take long for it to gain acceptance and access in Pakistan after its introduction.
When did the underwater Internet cables reach Pakistan?
In March 2000, for the first time in Pakistan, an underwater fiber cable was laid. The main connection link, through which all the network traffic of an internet company or a country passes, was transmitted from a satellite to optical fibers.
Since more data can be transferred instantly via fiber than through satellite, it is considered a turning point in the history of the Internet in Pakistan. After this, access to fast internet in Pakistan became a reality.
At the same time, PTCL and other companies began introducing digital phone lines, which provided people with a much slower, but still better dial-up service called DSL.
Today, Pakistani users have access to the internet from about 18 sources including DSL, fiber optic, mobile broadband, WiMAX, and satellite. According to PTA, from 2019 to 2020, the telecom sector contributed more than Rs 278 billion to the national economy, of which more than Rs 41 billion was in taxes alone.
How many Internet users are there in Pakistan?
The number of broadband subscribers in Pakistan crossed the 1 million mark in 2010. The auction of 3G and 4G licenses in April 2014 ushered in a new era of the internet in Pakistan through which the Internet can be accessed from the sidelines.
According to data available from the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) as of December 2020, about 44% (93 million) of the country’s population has access to the Internet today.
The actual number of users, however, is expected to be much larger than this. One cable internet and broadband connection is generally recognized as one user but it is generally observed that these connections are sometimes used by dozens of users. On this basis, it can be safely said that the number of people with access to the internet connection in the country will be 60% or more of the country’s population.
Leave a Reply