All you wanted to know about submarine cables. Spoiler alert: sharks are not dining on them
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f nothing else, the internet has grown in Pakistan – in terms of both penetration, technology and of course the country’s reliance on it. At the start of this decade, Pakistan only had a bandwidth capacity of 155 megabits per second (mbps). Today’s capacity, in the face of increased demand, is 3 terabits per second (tbps). The total user base of broadband internet comprises 117 million users, as per Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA). That’s a huge increase. There was also a change in the technology.
TECHNOLOGY
In the beginning, satellites were the backbone of telecommunication in Pakistan. However, as the world shifted to fibre connectivity, due to its ability to process greater volume of data at a faster rate, Pakistan also commissioned its first underwater fibre cable in 1986, and by the end of 1990s it was the primary source of internet connectivity. Pakistan envisioned to become a digital economy. But to achieve this, the country has to simplify access and digital connectivity reducing the coverage gap. There are 193 million mobile users in the country yet almost 50 percent don’t have a broadband connection. “The reasons for this (lagging behind in connectivity) range from cost to socio-econom-
ic factors; we need to tackle those systematically. Additionally, while we are approaching 90 million unique subscribers, some basic hurdles need to be removed for the remaining Pakistanis. Handset prices need to be curtailed, while the government continues to explore ways to both reduce the tax burden on imports and drive local production. The right incentives across the board will be required to achieve this,” wrote Tania Aidrus, in her foreword for GSMA’s publication, Pakistan: progressing towards a fully fledged digital economy. Therefore, it is extremely important to have a solid infrastructure that can support the growth of the internet user base but is also
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