Teams were “diligently” addressing disruptions that users have experienced since last night, caused by a fault in one of the subsea internet cables linking Pakistan to other regions, the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd said on Friday.

“Due to an international submarine cable outage, you may experience slow browsing issues,” the PTCL said in a statement.

“We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused during this time,” it added.

On Thursday, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority said that the issue arose in the Asia-Africa-Europe-1 (AAE-1) cable, located near Qatar.

Operational since 2017, the AAE-1 cable connects multiple countries, including Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Pakistan, India, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Greece, Italy, and France.

In 2024, issues with this cable led to frequent internet slowdowns and disruptions for users in Pakistan. While businesses and internet service providers suggested that government monitoring of internet traffic was to blame, the PTA clarified in an August statement that the problems stemmed from the faulty submarine cable.

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Despite recent improvements in average mobile and fixed broadband speeds, the South Asian country still ranks among the slowest countries in the world for internet connectivity, according to global speed test data.

The latest Ookla Speedtest Global Index for October revealed that Pakistan placed 141st out of 158 countries for fixed broadband, with a median speed of just 15.6 Mbps.

In the mobile data category, Pakistan ranked 100th out of 111 countries, achieving a median speed of 20.61 Mbps.