Pakistan’s digital landscape has begun 2026 under strain, with internet services across the country disrupted for more than 48 hours as of January 6.
Nayatel, one of Pakistan’s leading internet service providers, confirmed the disruption through its official X account, attributing the issue to a fault in an upstream provider.
The company said a major hardware failure in one of its two upstream providers triggered a nationwide ripple effect, severely affecting overall internet connectivity.
According to Nayatel, the core problem originates from Transworld, a key fibre backbone provider, whose infrastructure supports internet services for multiple providers.
Because Nayatel depends on Transworld’s backbone, its customers are experiencing significant connectivity degradation, particularly affecting upload speeds due to a compromised uplink.
The disruption is not limited to Nayatel, as testing and user reports indicate similar connectivity problems affecting PTCL, Zong, and Ufone subscribers nationwide.
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Users across these networks have reported persistent slow speeds and unstable connections, highlighting the broader impact of the backbone failure across Pakistan’s digital infrastructure.
The situation may worsen for some customers, as Nayatel has announced an essential maintenance activity scheduled for January 7, potentially causing additional interruptions.
The maintenance window is planned between 12:00 AM and 02:00 PM, during which subscribed services are expected to face further connectivity disruptions.
At present, no estimated time for repair has been provided, leaving users uncertain about when normal internet services will be fully restored.
Nayatel said its technical teams are monitoring the situation closely and coordinating with the upstream provider to restore services as soon as possible.
Until repairs are completed, internet traffic across Pakistan remains significantly affected, with users continuing to face degraded performance and unreliable connectivity.
