PTCL has announced emergency maintenance on the AAE-1 submarine cable, and internet users in Pakistan may notice slower speeds during peak hours until 2 November 2026. The work began on 27 October.
The repair is on the Italy-France section of the cable, at its European end. PTCL describes the expected effect as “minor service degradation”, so this is a warning about busy-hour slowdowns rather than an outage.
What you may notice
Reports point to video calls, streaming and large downloads as the things most likely to be affected first.
Neither report links PTCL’s own notice, so the details above come from press accounts of the announcement. Neither report says whether other internet providers are affected or whether PTCL will add backup bandwidth while the work goes on.
A cable Pakistan has leaned on before
AAE-1 runs roughly 25,000 km from South East Asia to Europe through Egypt, lands in Karachi, and has European landing points in Greece, Italy and France. PTCL switched on its Pakistan operations on the system in 2017.
It has caused slowdowns before. In January 2025 a fault near Qatar slowed speeds across the country for close to two weeks, and PTCL later said services were fully restored.
PTCL thanked customers for their patience while the work continues. Nothing in the reports suggests the dates will change, but the window is an estimate until the work is finished.
The maintenance window runs to 2 November. If speeds are still poor after that date, check PTCL’s official channels for an update.
