Cut off

After a disruption in internet services across the country over the weekend, PTCL has said services have now been restored and things would soon return to normal. The problem arose after a major fault developed in the international submarine cable system IMB. The cable provided by this service stretches along 13,000 kilometres from France to India. A technical fault developed in it near Jeddah on Saturday. PTCL had announced it was using bandwidth provided by other services through its international cable partners to try and improve the situation. However, apart from PTCL only one other company has landing rights for internet and world data traffic in Pakistan and this contributed to the problem faced as people across the country were unable to access the internet for many hours.

The problem affected business, all kinds of communication and also flights at Benazir Bhutto International Airport where air traffic schedule had to be changed because of the lack of net access. At least eight international and domestic flights had to be cancelled. Browsing speed appears to have improved since the breakdown in the affected cable and further improvements are now being anticipated. However, experts point out that with growing dependence on the internet for many concerns including the media, trade, linkages between multinational firms, air traffic control and also used by a swiftly growing number of users it is important that additional arrangement be made to combat such situations. Many countries, including India, have deals with a number of firms or international consortiums to provide internet linkages through cable. Given that internet is now a part of life, PTCL needs to consider following similar strategies so that the kind of disruption experienced on the weekend can be averted. A plan needs to be chalked out and talks initiated with the companies which can offer undersea cable services. Breakdowns of course are almost certain to occur from time to time. Pakistan experienced a major one in December 2016 and also at least two times after that for brief periods. PTCL did well to control the damage. But more effort is required to prevent internet breakdowns that now amount to a kind of disaster. Further diversification is perhaps the best means to attain this.