KARACHI, Aug 19: Inter-exchange telephone traffic of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company was adversely affected when workers of a government agency accidentally damaged a fibre-optic cable near Schon Circle on Friday evening.

A PTCL spokesman said during the ongoing uplift work near Clifton’s main roundabout, a streetlight pole fell on the road. “Trying to lift the streetlight that lay supine along the road, the workers used shovels and other sharp tools. By accident, they also uprooted the key fibre-optic cable of the PTCL. As a result, inter-exchange traffic of the PTCL, as well as cellphone traffic, was severely affected,” he explained.

He conceded that hundreds of PTCL subscribers were inconvenienced by the fault.

The PTCL spokesman was at pains to stress that the fibre-optic cable was different from the SEAMEWE-III cable whose fault some time back had dealt a bitter blow to the country’s telecommunications channels and Internet links.

“The fault was reported to the PTCL around 6.30pm. Teams of engineers were promptly dispatched to the trouble site and repair work is currently under way,” he said, adding that the fault would be repaired – and inter-exchange telephone traffic restored to normality – at the earliest.