SMW4 is the internet cable that connects Pakistan to various other countries. It has been reportedly damaged at segment 4 in Egypt. The reasons are unknown. Due to the damage to this undersea cable, a wide majority of internet users in Pakistan are facing trouble with internet speed. Out of the four cables used, this is the second cable that has been damaged and serious browsing and other internet usage issues have been faced by Pakistani internet users.
Estimated time to repair has not been communicated yet by the authorities. PTCL (member of this consortium that laid the cable representing Pakistan) and Transworld are still in contact with SEAMEWE-4 consortium members to sort out this issue and get a quote about the time estimation of the cable repair. Estimated Time to Repair is denoted as (ETTR). This project of laying cable was completed back on 13th of December 2005.
According to estimation by the internet service providers, approximately 40%-60% of the customers are directly affected by this cable and are experiencing very slow and sluggish internet browsing. ISPs said that although majority of the internet traffic of Pakistan is already transferred to SMW3 but due to increased load on SMW3 cable, internet users in Pakistan might still face slow browsing. SMW4 allows a data flow of 1.28 Terabytes per second as compared to SMW3 that only allows 0.96 Terabytes of data flow per second.
Earlier this month two other undersea cables used for backhaul data and voice services (IMEWE and EIG) were also damaged and they were being repaired. SMW4 (SEA-ME-WE 4) is the optical fibre submarine communication cable who’s function is to transport telecommunication services between Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Egypt, Italy, Tunisia, Algeria, France and of course Pakistan. 18,800KM long cable is the primary internet backbone to connect South East Asia, Indian subcontinent, Middle East and major portion of Europe.
