SMW4 fault: Internet users may experience problems: PTA

ISLAMABAD: A fault has been reported in the international submarine cable, SMW4, operated by the PTCL, in the Indian Ocean due to which some internet users may experience downgraded speeds during peak hours, said Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).

The PTA spokesperson said that however, alternate measures to provide uninterrupted internet services to the users have been taken on priority basis to meet capacity requirements including additional ad hoc bandwidth in the system.

Work is underway to fully restore internet services at the earliest.

The PTA is monitoring the situation and will continue to update on it, the spokesperson added.

Cable fault in sea affecting some internet traffic

A fault in one of the international submarine cables, the SMW4, has been reported, resulting in degraded internet services across the country. The ISPs across Pakistan have been notified by the PTCL that an outage on one of the international upstream networks has occurred once again.

Since a lot of traffic to and from Pakistan is routed through India and Singapore, the impact could be greater than usual. Due to the latest outage, Pakistan’s total bandwidth capacity was down by around 20 percent.

The concerned authorities are monitoring the situation and the PTA has asked the PTCL to add more capacity on other cables to minimise the degradation.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022