PTA reveals reason behind internet slowdown in country

• Two submarine cables connecting Pakistan facing fault: PTA
• PTA chief admits upgradation of firewall, web management system
• NFS upgradation approved during PTI’s tenure: Hafeezur Rehman

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Thursday gave another justification for intermittent internet disruptions across the country, blaming the issue on fault in “two of the seven international submarine cables connecting Pakistan internationally”.

The statement came amid strong criticism from netizens and information technology (IT) sector, attributing the prevailing internet slowdown and limited connectivity to the purported testing of an internet firewall to rein in social media, which is equipped with filters to block unwanted content from reaching a wider audience.

According to an official statement issued by the telecommunication authority today, the AAE-1 cable has experienced a 250G outage due to rerouting between Iran and Qatar. “Similarly, SMW 4 cable (1.5T) has been out of service due to faults near Karachi.”

The PTA further said that operators were re-routing traffic on other available cables to ‘minimise the impact on internet users in Pakistan’.

“The concerned teams are fixing the fault and PTA is monitoring the situation till internet speeds are normalised in the country,” the statement concluded.

A day earlier, PTA Chairman Maj Gen (retd) Hafeezur Rehman admitted that upgradation of the National Firewall System (NFS) or Web Management System (WMS) was under way for controlling or removing contents from social media, following directions received from executives or courts.

He said the PC-1 for the NFS upgradation was approved in March 2019, when Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was ruling the country, as per The News report. He also said that social media messaging service X, formerly Twitter, was banned for not complying with the directives issued by the interior ministry, as there was a defined mechanism to slap a ban or remove content on social media under the law of the land.

Under the Web Management System, it is the mandate of PTA to comply with the orders of the executive or superior courts and cited examples that they removed contents related to pornography or blasphemy, the PTA chief said.

However, the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Information Technology unanimously rejected slowing down of internet or banning social media platforms. They directed the Ministry of IT to come up with exact estimates of losses faced by the IT sector, in collaboration.

Wireless and Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan (WISPAP), Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) and IT experts have slammed the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif-led government over the issue, citing the economic impact on freelancers, IT professionals and the digital economy in general.

With P@SHA estimating a loss of $300 million loss in light of existing complaints by the businesses and the reputational damage, WISPAP Chairman Shahzad Arshad has said that businesses and individuals who depend on reliable internet connectivity which is an essential pillar of the country’s digital economy were now "struggling to maintain operations, and the slowdown is threatening their very survival”.

However, the government has denied its involvement in the issue with State Minister for Information Technology Shaza Fatima Khawaja blaming the use of virtual private networks (VPN) by internet users as the reason "their phones" slowed down.

"I can swear that the government of Pakistan did not block the internet or slow it down,” she said while speaking to the media last week.