Federal IT minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja confirmed on Monday that a submarine cable near Jeddah, Saudi -Arabia, causes national internet disruptions, with reviews on the corridor to determine the extent of the damage.
In a statement on Monday, the minister said she had contact with civil servants of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) about the situation.
“It is precisely that slow internet companies are working,” the minister acknowledged, adding that there were reviews to determine the extent of damage.
Her statement comes days after PTCL had said that the cutbacks on submarine interior network cables in Saudi waters can influence internet services in the country during peak hours.
The company said that disruption the partial bandwidth capacity on two large undersea cable systems, SMW4 and IMEWE, influenced that Pakistan connecting with global networks.
It added that international partners were working on a priority to restore the damaged ties, while local teams had arranged alternative bandwidth to reduce the impact.
However, the IT minister said that international repair agencies had not yet given a time frame for the recovery of the services.
“The nature of the cable damage is assessed,” she added.
It should be noted here that the malfunction was also felt in the middle, with users in the VAE and Gulf countries reporting slow connections after a reduction in the Red Sea.
Experts say that lankers are responsible for almost 70% of such incidents. The Red Sea is considered a critical global telecommunications corridor where repairs are technically complex and are often extended.
In March 2024, three cables were damaged in the same region, which caused widespread disruptions of internet and cloud services.
