As floodwater continues to drain out of upper Sindh, cutting and damaging fiber-optic connections, further internet outages are anticipated in the ensuing days. In a technical report shared on Wednesday to the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom by Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), it was stated that the repeated internet outages were primarily caused by flood relief efforts in the Sukkur division, where fiber-optic cables were being damaged primarily by heavy machinery used to clear water in Sindh.
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The government had requested technical reports from PTCL and Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) after becoming aware of recent instances of frequent internet failures . The PTA said that excavating trenches at numerous locations to redirect or drain out floodwater was to blame for the several cuts in fiber-optic cables rather than any sabotage or criminal activities.
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According to the PTCL report, several cuts in the districts of Ghotki, Khairpur, and Sukkur were to blame for the most recent internet service outages, which were reported on August 22 and 23. The Khairpur district’s tehsil Ranipur reported the most significant damage. Syed Aminul Haque, the minister for IT and telecom, said that the situation appeared to be serious and that additional events of this nature would occur in the near future.
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“Most of the underground cable pathways have been drowned due to significant flooding,” he continued. “Relief workers or people were trying to divert floodwater by digging trenches on roads and walkways.” The minister stated, “The government has directed PTCL to declare an emergency so that repair work may be begun when any such occurrence is recorded in the system, while the PTA is continuously checking the quality of service.
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Around six terabytes of internet were used in Pakistan on a yearly basis, with most of the data coming through seven underwater internet cable systems, four of which are run by PTCL, two by Transworld Associates, and one new cable system that only just went live and is owned by a Chinese company. Nearly 80% of this internet traffic travels over the PTCL network, which spans more than 50,000 kilometres. Only 70% of the 6.5 terabytes of data that may be sent across PTCL’s cable network are actually used, allowing for traffic to be diverted to alternative cables in the event of breakage.
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A vast number of internet service providers (ISPs), notably Storm Fibre, Nayatel, Telenor, Ufone, Jazz purchase bulk internet from PTCL in addition to its own retail internet service, thus any damage to the company’s cable system affects consumers of other ISPs as well.
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According to a senior ministry official, reports of service interruptions and cable damage occur almost everyday, but when optic-fibre cables are damaged, the issue worsens. However, there was no such problem for customers in Karachi, Hyderabad, Gwadar, and other districts of southern Sindh, the source said. “As the cables were broken in upper Sindh, the internet service in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and some portions of Balochistan was interrupted,” the official said.
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