Owing to the flood situation in Pakistan, the officials have warned that the country could undergo several more internet outages in the next few days. Explaining the situation, the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) stated that the outages had more to do with the flood relief efforts taking place in Sindh.
The PTCL’s technical committee briefed the IT Ministry as to why the outages were happening more frequently. According to the team’s report, the usage of heavy machinery to drain the flood water in Sukkur was directly responsible for damaging the fibre-optic cables.
It is pertinent to mention here that the IT Ministry had sough an explanation from the PTCL and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority as to what was causing frequent internet outages. The regulator – PTA – downplayed the possibility of any criminal activity and said that multiple cuts in the fibre-optic network had disrupted the internet.