Submarine Cable Maintenance Scheduled to Cause Nationwide Internet Slowdown on January 15

Internet services across Pakistan are expected to experience slowdowns on January 15 following scheduled maintenance on one of the country’s submarine cables.

In a customer advisory issued on Wednesday, Nayatel said that an “unavoidable maintenance activity” will be carried out on January 15, 2026, starting at around 2:00pm and may continue for up to eight hours. The company warned that the maintenance could lead to reduced internet speeds nationwide and apologised for the inconvenience. Nayatel did not disclose the specific submarine cable involved or whether the work is linked to an existing fault.

If disruptions occur, this would mark the second major internet degradation in Pakistan within two weeks. On January 1, 2026, users across the country faced widespread connectivity issues after a fault developed at one of Pakistan’s upstream internet providers, resulting in prolonged service disruptions lasting more than two days.

Pakistan relies heavily on multiple submarine cable systems for international internet traffic, making scheduled maintenance or unexpected faults a recurring cause of nationwide connectivity slowdowns.