KARACHI: The Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has announced a new undersea fibre-optic cable, set to come online by 2026.
The Africa-1 Submarine Cable will be connected to PTCL’s landing station at Karachi Seaview today (Saturday), the company said in a notice to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).
The $59.5 million project, approved in November 2020, will take another year before it becomes operational for end users.
“The initiative is designed to enhance connectivity between the UAE, Europe, and Africa, featuring multiple landing stations along the route.”
According to sources, after the landing, it will take approximately one more year to develop the necessary internet infrastructure within the country to make the cable operational.
This includes the installation of various equipment and the construction of supporting facilities, they said.
The project will be “ready for service” in the first quarter of 2026, said the PTCL notice.
This is the second cable to have landed in Pakistan in as many months.
Earlier in December, Transworld Associates linked the Africa-2 cable to its landing station in Karachi. It is also expected to come online by next year.
Currently, six cables, with a capacity of 13tpbs, bring internet to Pakistan: AAE-1, SMW-4 and IMEWE, managed by PTCL; and SMW-5 and TWA-1, operated by Trans World Associates.
Cyber Internet Services operates the sixth cable named Pakistan and East Africa Connecting Europe (PEACE).
According to IT experts, the linking of a new cable is a “significant step towards enhancing Pakistan’s digital infrastructure”.
Wahajus Siraj, the CEO and co-founder of Nayatel, an internet service provider, said with the additional capacity, Pakistan needs a significant reduction in the wholesale internet bandwidth prices.
“In India, 1,000 Mbps retail broadband is sold at around Rs13,000 per month, whereas in Pakistan, this costs at least 10 times more,” he claimed and sought PTA’s intervention to regulate the wholesale internet prices and delink it with US dollar.
