ISLAMABAD: Internet users across Pakistan experienced significant disruptions on Tuesday night, with many unable to access popular websites or encountering frequent timeouts. Outage trackers also noted a spike in complaints from customers of multiple service providers.
Nayatel, in an official statement, confirmed that the issue stemmed from a fault with one of its upstream providers. The company assured users that engineers were actively working on a solution, with an estimated restoration time of 1:15 a.m.
This slowdown coincides with ongoing connectivity challenges in Pakistan, following multiple undersea cable cuts earlier in the month. The damage, reported in the Red Sea, forced internet traffic onto longer routes, causing higher latency and slower speeds for Pakistan and neighboring countries.
Industry experts identified the affected systems as SMW4 and IMEWE, two key cables in the Asia-Europe corridor. Officials have warned that repairs could take up to five weeks, suggesting that recurring slowdowns during peak hours are likely, even if local networks remain stable.
For those impacted, real-time status updates are available through live outage dashboards like Downdetector. Some users may experience temporary improvements by switching DNS settings, connecting to VPN servers closer to Europe, or using mobile data. However, experts caution that these measures offer only limited relief until full upstream capacity is restored.
