For the past several days, users in Pakistan have been facing Internet disruption across different regions in the country. Currently, the internet service is running slow across the country. The authorities and the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication are investigating the real reason for the slow internet. However, there is no ultimate answer to this problem yet.
The number of internet users in Pakistan is high and thus users face difficulties in accessing the Internet. Still, due to the current internet’s poor connection, almost everyone is affected, but the most affected sectors are online businesses, IT, or freelancers. Users are anxiously waiting for updates and solutions as the current internet slowdown is costing the country and the IT industry billions of dollars.
The government of Pakistan has faced criticism for slow internet speeds, internet disruption, and speculation about the installation of a so-called firewall that could disrupt the internet, due to which no clear statement has been made by government officials yet.
Minister of State for Information Technology and Telecommunication, Shaza Fatima Khawaja said in a press conference on Sunday, said that the government has not controlled the internet at any level and has not slowed down the internet. She said that the reason for the slow internet is due to VPNs. Secretary of Telecommunication Ayesha Humira Chaudhary said in a meeting that there is no problem with broadband connection, but mobile data users are facing difficulties.
Pakistan Telecommunication is looking into this matter. What is the root cause of the internet? However, so far the PTA has said that the outage has raised questions, but they do not know about the root cause of the internet outages affecting multiple cities, regions, and ISPs is not yet known.
Internet users in Pakistan are also facing problems in using social media sites because of the slow internet, which makes it difficult for social media users to send and receive messages.
Internet disruption affects freelancers
Almost everyone is affected by internet outage failure in-country but the most affected are freelancers and IT groups. Freelancers as well as people who are earning online from home have also been affected. The most important thing to highlight here is that due to the internet outage, some Pakistani freelancer’s Fiverr accounts are unavailable. Many freelancers are in trouble and it is expected that in the next few days, online earning will become a challenging task.
Due to internet problems finding online work is becoming difficult, where thousands of people use the internet for freelancing and finding online jobs. Pakistani freelancers are facing difficulty in taking projects from clients and delivering them to their clients on time.
IT industry
Due to the slow internet, IT groups warned on Thursday that due to internet disruption, Pakistan may lose up to 300 million dollars. The disruption could cost $300 million and if the issue is not resolved, this is a huge loss for Pakistan’s IT industry and its associated IT professionals as well. Pakistan is losing millions of dollars, it is also likely that IT businesses from Pakistan will shift their operations to other countries, which is not good for Pakistan and for the economy of Pakistan.
Many people who do their business on the Internet or do online earnings have this question in their minds: will this Internet problem in Pakistan last for how long? The ministry did not have an answer, causing a wave of concern among internet users.
IT minister says that the web management system is being updated for increased cyber security, while the software houses have asked the government to restore the internet speed to normal. The Senate committee has also discussed the internet disruption problems faced by online businesses and said that there is a risk of loss in IT exports.
For many days, the people of Pakistan were waiting for a statement from the government, but on Sunday, government officials told in a press conference that the reason for the slow internet is the use of VPN, which makes the Internet slow.