Internet service down across Pakistan, PTCL backbone hit

ISLAMABAD: Internet services across Pakistan suffered a major disruption on Tuesday evening after a nationwide outage hit Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), the country’s largest internet backbone provider.

Users from Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad, Multan, Peshawar and parts of Azad Kashmir reported losing access to broadband and cellular data services.

Major telecom operators including Jazz, Zong and Ufone also experienced outages, with stats suggesting overall national connectivity dropped to just 20 per cent of normal levels.

⚠️ Confirmed: Metrics show a major disruption to internet connectivity across #Pakistan with high impact to backbone operator PTCL; overall national connectivity is down to 20% of ordinary levels 📉 pic.twitter.com/BbS1NSdivM

— NetBlocks (@netblocks) August 19, 2025

Websites monitoring global outages, including DownDetector, recorded a sharp spike in complaints from Pakistan. THey noted that despite PTCL’s network indicators showing “all green lights,” customers complained of being offline for more than half an hour in several major cities.

Nayatel confirmed the disruption in a statement on X, saying: “We are experiencing a nationwide internet slowdown due to an outage in one of our two upstream providers. This issue is impacting a major part of internet traffic across Pakistan. Our teams are actively monitoring the situation and working closely with the provider for early restoration.”

Dear Customers,

We are experiencing a nationwide internet slowdown due to an outage in one of our two upstream providers. This issue is impacting a major part of internet traffic across Pakistan.

— Nayatel (@nayatelpk) August 19, 2025

As of late Tuesday night, PTCL had not issued any official statement on the cause of the disruption or the expected time for restoration.

The sudden blackout left millions of users cut off from work, banking, e-commerce and entertainment platforms.

Social media quickly filled with frustration, humour and demands for the company to restore services urgently.

"Sir shark wali story nahi kaam aaygi"#PTCL pic.twitter.com/Uof9nHxX2A

— Nawab Zada (@DireMonnie) August 19, 2025

This is not the first time Pakistan has experienced internet blackouts. In recent years, internet services have been disrupted multiple times during political unrest, protests and security operations.

Digital rights groups have long criticised Pakistan’s repeated suspensions, saying they not only disrupt daily life but also cause significant economic losses.

The only thing consistent in Pakistan is the inconsistency of the Wi-Fi. And the load shedding. And the political chaos. Okay, my bad, we're consistent at being inconsistent.#PTCL #pakistan #internetdown #internet #islamabad pic.twitter.com/6wpciNFBdF

— Saira Ateeq (@ateeq_saira) August 19, 2025

According to industry estimates, a single day of complete shutdown can cost the economy billions of rupees in lost productivity and digital transactions.

In December last year, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto blasted the PML-N government for the slow internet speed, wondering why shark only cuts Pakistan’s internet cable.

He pointed out that PML-N is focused on building roads and motorways while “the infrastructure our generation needs is digitalisation, and fast internet”.