Pakistan’s internet infrastructure has received a major boost with the landing of the SEA-ME-WE 6 submarine cable, the Ministry of Information Technology announced on Saturday.

The 19,200km fibre-optic system connects Pakistan to countries from Singapore to France and offers over 100 terabits per second of total capacity, providing one of the fastest and lowest-latency routes between Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Western Europe. Pakistan has been allocated 13.2 Tbps on the cable, with 4 Tbps activated immediately, enhancing bandwidth for cloud services, data centres, fintech, e-commerce, streaming, and the broader digital economy.

The ministry said the system ensures rapid scalability, stronger fault protection, and lower long-term network costs for operators while adding a critical redundancy layer to the global internet backbone. The project is supported by a consortium including Pakistan’s Transworld Associates and leading operators from Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe.

This launch follows recent connectivity expansions: PTCL landed the Africa-1 submarine cable in Karachi in February, while Transworld Associates connected the Africa-2 cable in December.

Currently, Pakistan relies on six submarine cables for international bandwidth: AAE-1, SMW4, and IMEWE (operated by PTCL); SMW-5 and TWA-1 (run by Transworld Associates); and the PEACE cable, operated by Cyber Internet Services.

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About Author:
Qasim Minhas is an IT expert and cybersecurity professional with extensive experience in IT infrastructure, emerging technologies, digital security and the news media domain. He is dedicated to promote cybersecurity awareness and helping organizations strengthen their digital resilience in an ever-evolving threat landscape.