Why is the internet slow / down in Karachi and other parts of Pakistan?

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If you live in Karachi and some other parts of Pakistan, your internet may be slow or even down entirely. If you’re having problems with your internet, you’re certainly not alone. However, a fix could be tricky because the problem is with a pair of submarine cables which connect Pakistan with the rest of the world.

Internet is slow or down in Karachi, Pakistan

PTCL tweeted an explanation for the problem earlier today, saying that it was caused by an “international submarine cable fault. The internet service provider also said it’s working on fixing the issue.

According to ProPakistani, the cables tagged IMEWE and SEAMEWE 4, which carry nearly half of Pakistan’s internet traffic, went offline. There is some kind of fault with the cables, although unfortunately, workers have not yet determined exactly where the fault is.

Due to the issue, the internet is slow in Karachi and many other parts of Pakistan. It sounds like few people are saying their internet is down, so ultra-slow speeds appear to be the main impact of the cable faults.

More details about the internet problems

Internet service providers are working to shift the load of the two affected cables over to other submarine cables to balance the traffic load a bit better. However, even after the load is spread out more, the internet could still be slow for many Pakistani users. It’s expected that internet speeds will be impacted until the IMEWE and SEAMEWE 4 cables come back online, but hopefully, spreading the traffic load out a bit will make the issue a bit more bearable than it is currently.

A spokesperson for the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) told ProPakistani that it could take hours for both cables to be restored, although there is no official timeline for restoration.

The news outlet adds that Pakistan is connected to the rest of the world via six submarine cables, which is less than the number of cables connecting other countries in the region. For example, much smaller Oman is connected by many more cables than Pakistan, which has about 70 million internet users.

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