Widespread internet disruption hit Pakistan on Tuesday evening, with national connectivity plummeting to just 20% of normal levels, primarily due to disruptions in PTCL’s backbone infrastructure.
What Happened?
- NetBlocks, an internet monitoring network, confirmed a serious decline in Pakistan’s overall connectivity, attributing it to a critical impact on PTCL, which serves as a backbone operator.
- Downdetector recorded a surge in outage reports, starting around 9:30 PM PKT, with over 2,400 complaints within mere minutes, indicating widespread service failure.
- Several major cities—including Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, and Peshawar—were notably affected. Businesses were heavily affected, with online transactions and operations coming to a halt. Banking services, remote work arrangements, and essential communications were severely disrupted nationwide. A wave of frustration and confusion spread through social media as users complained about the lack of official updates.
PTCL has also acknowldged the outage and posted a message on X stating:
Dear Customers,
We are currently facing data connectivity challenges on our PTCL and Ufone services. Our Teams are diligently working to restore the services as quickly as possible. We regret any inconvenience caused.
