There have been further developments in the controversy in Pakistan reported yesterday relating to slow internet speeds. A new contribution from regulator the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has moved the blame away from VPNs.
The PTA now says the nationwide slow internet is due to a “faulty submarine cable”. It has also said that no firewalls were being installed by the government, an allegation made by activists, the business community and some ISPs.
Mobile data and broadband have been affected by the slowdown, which information technology minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja insists is not a result of the government “throttling” the internet.
The latest reason, according to PTA Chairman Retired Major General Hafeezur Rehman, speaking during a meeting of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on IT on Wednesday, is a faulty submarine cable, which is expected to be repaired by 28 August. He also tried to make it clear that it was the government’s web management system — and not a firewall — which was being upgraded.
According to local news service Dawn, several senators at the meeting expressed frustration over ongoing internet issues, including occasional shutdowns of TikTok, slow internet and alleged firewalls, demanding clarification on the situation.
Meanwhile, at the Lahore High Court on Wednesday, the PTA, the federal government, and the information and law ministers, responded to a petition against the disruptions. Blame was attributed to various issues, including “cutting of one of the submarine cables (SMW4) for last one month or so”. This has apparently reduced the inland capacity by 1.5 terabits (Tbit) per second. However, a major dip in internet services has allegedly been traced back to a major internet service provider (ISP) making a “severe misconfiguration in their core network”.
Also cited was a “severe degradation of around 1.5tbps” observed on internet traffic entering the country on 15 August, Indian National Day, which, it was argued, “might be due to some distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack”, though India does not appear to have been explicitly blamed. The PTA also mentioned the increased use of VPNs during the period.
Presiding Justice Shakil Ahmad was apparently unimpressed. The next hearing will take place on 27 August.
While Pakistan authorities deny any interference with internet access, such a tactic is becoming more common as a way of stifling dissent in many countries, something we discussed in a feature published earlier today.
