Hashtag: #InternetAccess, #DigitalPakistan, #InternetInfrastructure.

International submarine cables are responsible for slow internet speeds over the weekend,
and this is being rectified, according to IT Minister Shaza Fatima. According to IT Minister
Fatima and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, the submarine cable known as
Asia-Africa-Europe 1 (or AAE-1) suffered a fault around Qatar, that caused a severe
degradation in the quality and speed of internet access in Pakistan. According the Minister
and the PTA, “the issue of degradation of Internet services due to fault in AAE1 submarine
cable on January 2, 2025 ad hoc bandwidth has been arranged and added in the system”.
According to additional reports, a new underwater cable is being laid that will provide
more stable internet connections, via system called the “2Africa Submarine Cable”, backed
by a consortium that includes Meta, China Mobile and the Saudi Telecom Company. The
Minister and PTA did not address earlier internet disruptions, however, which have been
attributed by rights groups to the development of the internet “firewall” or Web
Management System.

Hashtag(s): #InternetShutdowns, #KeepItOn,
Internet shutdowns over the course of 2024 has cost the Pakistani economy US$1.62
billion, according to a report by TopVPN, an independent VPN review website. According
to TopVPN, government-mandated internet shutdowns in 2024 resulted in a global
economic cost of US$7.69 billion, of which Pakistan was the most severely impacted,
followed by Myanmar (US$ 1.58 billion) and Sudan (US$1.12 billion). This is a drastic
increase from 2023, where the total cost to Pakistan was US$237.6 million, according to
TopVPN’s report for 2023. In additional to the economic cost, the TopVPN estimates that
82.9 million users in Pakistan were negatively affected over the course of 2024.
According to the report, 82.9 million internet users in Pakistan were impacted by the
shutdowns, with “Peaceful Protest” and “Free & Fair Elections”, two other benchmarks,
were also impacted, as can be confirmed by the ongoing ban on X (Formerly Twitter). The
report also highlighted that social media platforms, X in particular, were a key target of
internet shutdowns in 2024, worldwide.
TopVPN calculated the economic costs of internet shutdowns by “using the Netblocks Cost
of Shutdown Tool, which is based on the Brookings Institution method, with CIPESA’s
specialized model used for sub-Saharan Africa. Regional shutdown costs are derived
from the region’s economic output as a proportion of national GDP.”

Hashtag: #VPN

Contrary to reports circulating at the end of 2024, the PTA has reported that two VPN
service providers have applied for VPN licenses in Pakistan, as part of the government’s
“localised” VPN scheme, with their applications under review. The PTA was unable to ban
unregistered VPNs after the Ministry of Law issued a legal opinion stating that the PECA’s
articles on social media did not cover “tools” used to access said platforms, and introduced
localised VPN registration as a means of bypassing this issue. Promoted as a means of
striking a “balance” between cybersecurity and privacy, rights organisations and citizens
have relayed concerns that “localised” VPNs, with user data stored in Pakistan, runs the
risk of giving PTA and the government more powers to monitor users, negating the basis
for VPN usage in the first place, particularly if sensitive information is being shared.