ISLAMABAD, 6 July 2005 — Engineers have begun repairing a faulty undersea fiber-optic cable that has virtually crippled Pakistan’s Internet access for more than a week but repairs could entail more work than expected, an official said yesterday.
Officials at the Pakistan Telecommunication Co. Ltd., which operates Pakistan’s sole international cable link for data and the Internet, had said they hoped the cable, which developed a fault on June 27, would be fixed by early this week.
But PTCL President Junaid Khan declined to estimate yesterday how long the work might take, saying the cable might have more than one fault.
“We can’t give any definite time for the repair,” Khan told Reuters.
A submarine cable-laying and maintenance ship of Emirates Telecommunications Co, of the United Arab Emirates, arrived off the Pakistani coast at the weekend to repair the cable.
Engineers had identified the location of one fault and repairs were under way but there might be more faults in the link, Khan said.
The problem has disrupted business across the country though PTCL has installed satellite back-up links that have restored some Interet access.
