ISLAMABAD: A technical fault in the Asia-Africa-Europe 1 (AAE-1), international submarine cable system, has led to internet disruption worldwide including in Pakistan, PTA sources said on Thursday.
According to the initial reports, the fault occurred near Qatar, leading to the complete shutdown of the AAE-1 cable. The National Operation Center (NOC) in Qatar and the AAE-1 cable consortium have been working to resolve the issue.
The cable consortium has yet to issue the nature of the fault and the time it will take to be fully fixed.
The submarine cable AAE-1 (Asia-Africa-Europe-1) is one of the world’s largest internet connection networks that connects Asia, Africa, and Europe. The AAE-1 is one of the seven international submarine cables connecting Pakistan internationally.
This cable is an important source of global internet connectivity not only for Pakistan but also for other countries.
Due to the fault in the undersea cable, the internet service providers in the country also facing complaints of reduced internet speeds and complete shutdown of services in some areas, the PTA sources confirmed.
The PIA official said that since AAE-1 is a major source of internet data traffic for Pakistan, additional pressure will now be placed on other alternative international cables during its outage to minimize disruption to users, which could further slow down internet speeds.
The sources within the telecom authority said that the transfer to other cables may take time and users may face difficulties for a few days.
The consortium of submarine cable AAE 1 immediately sent experts to Qatar to assess the fault. It is expected that information about the nature of the fault and the timeline for its resolution will be provided soon.
