Islamabad, Aug 21: According to the chairman of the Wireless & Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan (WISPAP), businesses and the general public are confused by the continuous drama surrounding internet outages in Pakistan.
Major General (R) Hafeez Ur Rehman, Chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), stated in a statement on Wednesday that the recent claim that the current internet problems are caused by a fault in the submarine cable is merely the most recent development in a story that has never been entirely clear.
The authorities have been sending out mixed signals for weeks about what exactly is causing these interruptions. The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication initially told the public that there was nothing unusual, downplaying the problem.
Subsequently, there were indications of possible enhancements to the National Firewall System (NFS) and imprecise mentions of a “web management system.” But when asked for specifics, officials either remained silent or flatly denied that the NFS was involved. Now, in an unexpected move, the PTA chairman has admitted to both the pending NFS upgrade and the submarine cable’s flaw.
This disclosure brings up a number of important issues:
“Why wasn’t the public told sooner? Why were many government agencies sending out contradictory messages? Above all, why are businesses and internet consumers footing the bill for this confusion? Regarding the lack of openness surrounding these incidents, we at the Wireless & Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan (WISPAP) are quite worried. The public has a right to know the real state of the nation’s internet infrastructure. Is there something more going on, or is it just a malfunction with the submarine cable? To make matters more unclear, the PTA acknowledged the NFS upgrade abruptly after weeks of rumors and denials”.
This ambiguity is seriously harming finances; it’s not just a problem of bad communication. The undocumented IT sector, which probably suffers large, unreported losses, is not even included in the $300 million in losses that the telecom sector has previously declared. Furthermore, it stated, “The public is forced to bear the repercussions without any clear answers, and businesses that rely on reliable internet connections are losing money every day as a result of these unexplainable disruptions. As a country, we need to assess our current position on accountability and openness. Why decisions that impact our daily lives and economy are kept a secret from us?
“It’s time for the authorities to give clear, consistent, and correct information. The public and business community have a right to know the truth. It’s late, but the PTA’s new acknowledgment might be a positive start. We demand that the government completely reveal the circumstances surrounding the internet interruptions, including their exact origin and the steps being taken to avoid them in the future. We can only guarantee that businesses and the general public are not left to handle this digital uncertainty on their own by promoting openness,” the WISPAP statement stated.
