Citizens in various cities of Pakistan faced internet connectivity issues on Thursday, amid already-existing concerns of service disruptions.
The outage comes just a day after a body of internet service providers (ISPs) alleged that the government’s heightened efforts to monitor internet traffic had resulted in a significant nationwide slowdown of services.
The Wireless and Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan (Wispap) said internet speeds over the past few weeks plummeted by 30 to 40 per cent and warned that the situation had become so dire that many businesses were considering relocating their operations to other countries.
Major online platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp have been hit hard since last week with users reporting slowdowns and difficulties in accessing messaging and social media applications.
Some users have speculated that the disruptions were the result of a firewall being installed by the government to monitor and keep check on users.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) had denied that the issue was caused by a firewall. Dawn.com has again reached out to the PTA but is yet to receive a response.
According to Downdetector, an internet outage tracking website, the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) was the most affected while services provided by Zong, Nayatel, and Fiberlink were also affected.
Dawn.com staffers also experienced data outages on Ufone — a subsidiary of PTCL — and Jazz.
Downdetector showed a sharp spike in reported outages of PTCL services from around 12:30pm onwards.
Most of the outages were reported from Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Islamabad, and Multan, among other cities.
Within the same timeframe, more than 35 outages were reported by Zong users while over 30 such complaints were made by Nayatel users.
Meanwhile, Meta platforms Facebook and WhatsApp also witnessed a sharp spike in outage complaints at around 1pm, Downdetector showed. Both platforms have also seen a higher-than-usual number of outages in the past 24 hours.
Senate body wants issue resolved within 2 weeks
Meanwhile, the Senate’s standing committee on IT ordered the tech ministry to resolve the issue of internet disruptions and access to social media apps within two weeks.
During the committee’s session today, presided over by PPP Senator Palwasha Khan, members from both the treasury and opposition benches raised concerns about the issues.
PTI Senator Humayun Mohmand highlighted that the issues were negatively impacting businesses in Pakistan.
PML-N’s Afnanullah Khan claimed that the cyber slowdown had caused the country a loss of at least Rs500 million.
Responding to the concerns, IT Secretary Aisha Humera Chaudhary said there was a “disruption in services of mobile operators”.
“It can be a technical issue that will soon be solved,” she said.
Subsequently, the committee directed the IT ministry to solve the issue of internet and social media platforms’ connectivity within two weeks. It also sought a report on the losses caused by these issues.
