The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said on Wednesday that internet services were restored across the country following an earlier interruption.

“It is notified that the internet/broadband is now available across Pakistan. Short interruption/degradation was successfully resolved. The exact issue is being investigated by PTA,” the authority said in an update around 10pm.

Internet services provided by Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL) earlier suffered disruption across the country today, the company said.

“PTCL network is facing data outage in various cities due to which connectivity has been affected,” PTCL spokesperson Amir Pasha told Dawn.com.

“Our teams are actively working to resolve and rectify the issue at the earliest,” he added.

PTA spokesperson Malahat Obaid attributed the disruption to a “fault in the PTCL system”.

“Internet/broadband users may experience degraded services during peak hours,” she said, explaining that the disruption may affect PTCL users and those internet service providers using PTCL’s bandwidth.

The spokesperson added teams were currently fixing the fault while the PTA was monitoring the situation till internet/broadband services were back to normal.

Dr Shahid Farooq Alvi, president of the Pakistan Telecommunication Access Provider Association (PTAPA), also confirmed to Dawn.com that PTCL’s internet services “all over Pakistan” were not working.

He said PTCL provided 70 per cent of the internet services in the country.

“Companies were also not informed about when the system would start providing internet,” the PTAPA president said.

Global internet monitor Netblocks said, “live network data [showed] a nation-scale disruption to internet connectivity in Pakistan”.

“Metrics show national connectivity at 24pc of ordinary levels, corroborating user reports of a widespread outage,” it said in a post on X.

Downdetector, which tracks outages, showed a spike in reported outages of PTCL services from around 1:30pm onwards.

 This screengrab, taken at around 4pm on July 31, shows reported outages of PTCL’s internet services.
This screengrab, taken at around 4pm on July 31, shows reported outages of PTCL’s internet services.

The majority of the complaints, 73 per cent, reported “internet” problems while 23pc had reported “total blackout”.

Cities from where most of the complaints had been reported included Karachi, Rawalpindi, Sargodha, Lahore, Faisalabad and Multan, Downdetector stated.

A perusal of X showed complaints from several users, with the PTCL replying to three of them between 11am and 1pm.

Internet services had suffered brief disruption in parts of the country in April, with Netblocks stating that operators attributed the disturbance to a “technical issue”.

Opinion

Editorial

Maintaining balance
Updated 16 Feb, 2025

Maintaining balance

It must take a more proactive approach to establishing Pakistan’s bona fides.
Welcome return
16 Feb, 2025

Welcome return

IT is almost here; the moment Pakistan has long been waiting for — the first International Cricket Council...
Childhood trauma
16 Feb, 2025

Childhood trauma

BEING a child in this society should not be so hard. But recurrent reports of child abuse — from burying girl...
The Peca problem
Updated 15 Feb, 2025

The Peca problem

The fight for fundamental freedoms is not the media’s alone, but one that concerns every citizen.
Miners in danger
15 Feb, 2025

Miners in danger

YESTERDAY’S devastating terrorist attack in Harnai, which killed at least 11 coal miners and injured seven others,...
Solar panels scam
15 Feb, 2025

Solar panels scam

THE scam involving over-invoicing to the tune of more than Rs69bn in the import of solar panels raises many ...