Pakistan may see slower internet during evening hours this week as submarine cable repairs run until April 20, overlapping with power outages.
Key Takeaways
- Evening internet speeds may drop more than usual this week, especially during load-shedding hours.
- Several ISPs are coordinating submarine (marine) cable maintenance, with repairs expected to continue until April 20.
- PTCL has said users may experience slow speeds while the international consortium fixes the marine cable fault.
- The worst impact is likely when power outages and peak internet usage happen at the same time.
- Users can reduce disruption by planning heavy downloads earlier, using backup connectivity, and keeping routers powered.
Why Internet Problems May Get Worse This Week
Pakistanis have already reported major internet trouble since the evening of April 15, and the disruption may continue through the week. The key issue is timing: repair activity on a submarine (marine) cable is ongoing, while many areas are also dealing with electricity outages and load management.
When both events overlap—especially in the evening—people feel the slowdown more sharply because demand rises while technical capacity tightens. This matters beyond entertainment. When speeds dip, everyday services can become unreliable, including online classes, video calls, card payments, cloud backups, and customer support channels that depend on stable connectivity.
What Submarine Cable Maintenance Means
Most of Pakistan’s international internet traffic travels through undersea fibre-optic cables that connect the country to global networks. If one cable develops a fault, traffic is usually rerouted through other available paths. That rerouting can keep the internet running, but it often increases congestion and raises latency (the delay you notice in calls, gaming, and video meetings).
Officials have confirmed that repair work has started on the marine cable fault, and PTCL has stated the process will continue until April 20. Because the cable is repaired by an international consortium, the work depends on specialist teams, ships, and equipment, which is why fixes can take days rather than hours. In practical terms, users may see symptoms like slower browsing, buffering on streaming, unstable VPN connections, and sudden drops in quality during voice and video calls.
Evening Slowdowns And Power Cuts: The Real Link
Evenings are typically peak hours for internet usage in Pakistan. More households stream video, students attend online classes, and offices push late-day uploads. If power outages occur during these hours, mobile networks can become more crowded because people switch to cellular data when home broadband drops or routers shut down. At the same time, fixed broadband networks can also suffer. If customers’ routers and ONU/ONT devices lose power, sessions drop and reconnect repeatedly, which increases load on network equipment.
Another factor is local infrastructure. When neighbourhood power goes out, some street-level networking gear may shift to backup power. If backup capacity is limited, performance can degrade faster. That combination is why people may feel the internet getting worse during the same windows as load-shedding, even if the cable repair is the original trigger.
What Users And Businesses Can Do Now
Shift heavy usage to off-peak hours: schedule backups, cloud sync, software updates, and large downloads for mornings or late nights. Use a small power backup for connectivity: a basic UPS for your router and ONT can keep broadband stable during short outages and reduce repeated reconnections. Set a fallback connection: keep a second SIM or hotspot plan ready for critical work, and test it before you need it.
Prioritize real-time traffic: lower video resolution in meetings, pause auto-updates, and use wired Ethernet to reduce Wi‑Fi drops. If you run an online business, inform customers early: add a short banner on your website or social pages warning about possible delays in replies, order processing, or uploads. For households, simple troubleshooting helps: restart the router once daily (not repeatedly), place it away from heat, and avoid running too many devices on weak Wi‑Fi signals during peak hours.
What To Watch Until April 20
If internet speeds improve during daytime but drop again in the evening, it likely confirms the combined effect of peak traffic and power interruptions. Keep an eye on ISP advisories. If multiple providers are involved in maintenance windows, slowdowns can appear nationwide rather than staying limited to one city. If you have mission-critical needs—payments, customer support, remote operations—plan for redundancy until the maintenance period ends on April 20.
Track what changes actually help: note the time of day, whether power was out, whether you were on broadband or mobile data, and whether VPN was on. This makes it easier to explain the problem to your ISP if you need to raise a complaint. Once repairs are completed, performance should gradually normalize, but recovery may not feel instant if networks need time to rebalance traffic routes and clear congestion.
