Federal Secretary Information Technology and Telecommunication Zarrar Hasham has informed an NA panel that repairing undersea internet cables damaged off the coast of Yemen could take four to five weeks.
Responding to a question during a National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology meeting, he explained that several cables near the coast of Yemen had been cut, as reported by The News.
“Many submarine cables near the coast of Yemen have been cut, while two cables coming to Pakistan have been affected; the restoration of the damaged cables may take four to five weeks,” he told the NA committee. He informed lawmakers that the situation in Yemen is complicated, saying that of the four to five cables damaged in the area, two of the affected cables serve Pakistan.
The IT secretary added that companies had shifted bandwidth to alternative routes to keep services running.
Earlier this month, Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) said that internet users in the country might experience disruptions due to submarine cable cuts in Saudi waters near Jeddah. According to the statement issued by the internet company, the cuts occurred near Jeddah, affecting partial bandwidth capacity on the SMW4 and IMEWE systems, two of the key undersea cables that connect the country to global networks. It further added that international partners were working as a priority to restore the damaged links, while local teams had arranged alternative bandwidth to mitigate the impact.
