After nearly eight hours of downtime, internet services in Pakistan have been fully restored following a significant technical fault in Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited’s (PTCL) network. The outage began late Tuesday night and left users across the country scrambling for alternatives, particularly those relying on PTCL and its mobile arm, Ufone.
The disruption originated in PTCL’s distribution infrastructure in Karachi, according to internal sources. Technical teams were deployed immediately and worked through the night to isolate and repair the fault, managing to restore services by around 5:00 a.m. on Wednesday.
A PTCL representative confirmed the restoration, expressing appreciation for the patience shown by affected customers during the downtime. “We have resolved the issue and services are now fully functional,” the spokesperson said.
PTA Monitors and Assists Restoration
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) was involved in the recovery process, providing oversight and assistance. PTA officials clarified that the outage did not take down PTCL’s entire system, but certain parts of the network—particularly those feeding downstream ISPs and dependent services—experienced significant interruptions.
Interestingly, other major providers such as Transworld and Multinet remained operational, but their reach was limited since many local ISPs depend on PTCL’s backbone infrastructure.
Global Watchdog Confirms Large-Scale Impact
Independent internet monitoring group NetBlocks also verified the scale of the incident. The organization reported that approximately 20 percent of Pakistan’s internet capacity was offline during the peak of the outage, with PTCL suffering the most severe disruption.
While the fault has been addressed and services are back to normal, the incident has once again highlighted Pakistan’s heavy reliance on PTCL’s network and the vulnerabilities that come with such centralization. As demand for stable connectivity continues to grow, calls for diversified infrastructure and improved redundancy measures are likely to intensify.
