Sharks Don’t Eat Submarine Internet Cables: PTA Chairman

Chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Major General (retd) Hafeez Rehman, reassured the Senate Standing Committee on IT and Telecom on Wednesday that sharks pose no threat to submarine cables.

During his briefing, he revealed that seven submarine cables, including the highly anticipated 2Africa cable, will be connected to Pakistan’s mainframe later this year. The chairman further outlined plans for four additional cables in the coming years to boost internet capacity and reliability.

He also expressed confidence that more organizations will begin submitting applications to the regulator for the registration of their virtual private networks.

A senator raised concerns about Pakistan’s consistently slow internet speeds, highlighting the country’s global ranking of 97th in terms of internet speed. He also pointed out issues such as difficulties in downloading voice notes.

In response, the committee requested input from the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Law to help address these challenges.