The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has completed its investigation into the recent internet slowdown across the country and submitted a comprehensive report to the Ministry of Information Technology.
The investigation identified increased usage of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) as a major factor contributing to bandwidth strain, prompting the PTA to recommend an increase in bandwidth to meet the growing internet demand.
The PTA report compiled details from all telecom operators, including PTCL, highlighting the issues they faced. The slowdown impacted social media usage, web browsing, and over-the-top (OTT) platforms, with users reporting reduced performance and disruptions.
Key findings from the investigation include:
- Complaints of blocking issues on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
- Decreased data traffic on major applications like TikTok.
- Performance issues on popular OTT platforms.
- Fixed-line operators like PTCL also reported disruptions in social media services during the slowdown.
- Users experienced significant delays in video streaming, voice and video calls, and general web browsing.
In its report, PTA emphasized the urgent need to increase bandwidth to alleviate the strain caused by rising VPN usage. The authority has urged telecom operators to adapt their infrastructure to cope with the growing internet demand, particularly for bandwidth-heavy activities like streaming and real-time communications.
