Netizens across Pakistan have been left worried amid rumours circulating on social media platforms claiming nationwide internet disruption or outage in the country.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), however, has clarified the matter and denied any internet disruption or outage.
"Information regarding any disruption of internet services on 15 January is incorrect and without factual basis," the PTA said in a post on X.
Assuring that the internet services across Pakistan remain stable and fully operational, the authority said that a routine submarine cable maintenance was underway, but it will not affect internet services.
Internet disruptions, slow speed and limited access are not uncommon in Pakistan in recent times, where the issue has been attributed on reasons ranging from maintenance of undersea cables, to lack of spectrum and security measures.
Last month, the Economic Coordination Committee approved auction of 600 MHz spectrum which would not only improve the internet speed but also pave way for the roll out of 5G internet in the country.
As per Ookla Speedtest Global Index, Pakistan ranked 97th globally with regards to mobile internet speed which was measured at 24.79Mbps in November. The statistics were much worse for fixed broadband speed where the country ranked 146 with download speed of mere 18.27Mbps.
In November 2025, the country significantly expanded its international internet capacity with the launch of the South-East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe (SEA-ME-WE) 6 submarine cable system.
The 19,200-kilometre high-capacity fibre network connects the country to major digital hubs between Singapore and France.
The system, offering over 100 terabits per second (Tbps) of total capacity, provides one of the lowest-latency routes between Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Western Europe.
Under the deployment, Pakistan had been allocated 13.2 Tbps, of which 4 Tbps has been activated immediately — a major boost that will support cloud computing, data centres, fintech, e-commerce, streaming platforms and the broader digital economy.
