Internet slowdown to end in Oct: PTA chairman

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Chairman Major General (retd) Hafeezur Rahman has said that the authority has no ability to slow sown the internet and the problem will end by end of October.

Talking to journalists, he said there was 93% compliance of social media except X. “The decision to close X is that of the federal government. We will open it when the government asks for it. Our compliance rate from X is very high but it only complies with 27%,” he added. The PTA chairman said that in 2023, the internet was shut down 116 times in India while it was shut down seven times in Pakistan. “I do not defend internet shutdown but national security is a priority. This time on Muharram 10, the mobile service was not widely shut down. The internet service was shut down in certain areas only at certain times.”

He maintained, “The mobile service was suspended in Bangladesh during the elections as every country has its own security situation. The decision of shutdown is based on intelligence reports. Mobile data is currently blocked in Panjgur due to security and no security agency directly writes to us. There was a request to shut down the mobile service during the MDCAT exam which was rejected.”

He added that he had written to all social media platforms to use AI to block illegal content. “We had opposed blocking SIMS on FBR orders and it made its own arrangement with telecom companies. No doubt the GSM service is bad, India has 470 MHz spectrum. Pakistan has 274 MHz spectrum and call drop will end after 5G auction. Pakistan has 160,000 km of fiber and 4G service quality will also improve on 5G spectrum, while 5G auction would be held in April next year,” he added.