Islamabad: Pakistan’s telecommunication regulator confirms that it is upgrading its Web Management System (WMS), due to which the country’s internet users will continue to face episodes of internet outages ahead of the general election.
On January 22, Ahmed Shamim Pirzada, the director general of the state-run Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), told the media that recent incidents of nationwide internet slowdown were “technical glitches” as the PTA was updating one of its software.
Pirzada then warned that the “glitches” would continue for the next two to three months, even though Pakistan is slated to hold its parliamentary election in two weeks, on February 8.
That software, being upgraded, is the Web Management System (WMS), a spokesperson of the PTA confirmed to Geo Fact Check over the phone.
“The deployment/upgradation/testing of Web Management System(s) is currently ongoing on landing stations for internet submarine cables i.e Sea-Me-We 3,4,5 etc,” the spokesperson added, without further elaborating.
The PTA official further claimed that the system was being deployed by the telecommunication operators in the country.
“PTA has issued directions to them [telecom companies] to ensure that any related technical activity should not impact the internet services for telecom users,” the spokesperson said.
But digital rights activist Usama Khilji calls PTA’s response “inconsistent” and contradictory.
“First, the PTA says that the deployment [of the WMS] is happening on the internet submarine cable but then it blames telecom operators, so which is it?,” Khilji asked, “Under the WMS, the telecom operators have no say. It is the PTA that directly blocks content through the internet cable and has complete control.”
