Islamabad: Pakistan, which has yet to roll out 5G services in the country, is experiencing slow internet speed at a time when the whole world already switched to advanced bandwidth at least 3-4 years ago. According to a recent report released by Top10VPN.com, an independent VPN reviewer, Pakistan led the world in terms of financial losses suffered as a result of outages and shutdowns of internet and social media apps last year, with a cumulative financial impact of $1.62 billion.
The average downloading speed is 7-8 MBPS. However, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Tuesday rejected the report and said that the internet in Pakistan was “much better and cheaper” as compared to several other countries, Dawn reported.
"You won’t find cheaper internet than we have here"
"This was calculated by a vpn forum, but I believe the internet has gotten better and in the coming days, it will improve further," Tarar said while speaking to reporters at the opening ceremony of Media Cricket League 2025.
"You won’t find cheaper internet than we have here, look at the ads with the slogans regarding unlimited data, whether telecom or Local Area Network (LAN) system," he said.
The information minister added that there have been improvements concerning the internet, adding, “There were a few glitches in the past but now I feel this is more of a political discussion without evidence.” However, in reality, there were multiple occasions when the country shut down internet services or switched to low bandwidth.
Minister faces massive backlash
Earlier in August last year, Shaza Fatima Khawaja, Pakistan's IT minister, while addressing a press conference, faced massive backlash over the internet outages. During the presser, she asserted the internet was neither "blocked" nor intentionally slowed down, but the increased usage of VPNs has affected the internet speed.
Notably, virtual private networks (VPNs) that encrypt data and provide users with anonymity online have seen a surge in use in Pakistan in recent years as the government tightened its grip on the internet to curb dissent. It is a way to evade the country's server. Besides, the country is yet to launch the fifth generation 5G services in the country. Earlier in January last year, the then government had promised to launch it by August this year, however, later it was postponed to August 2025.
Also Read: Pakistan faces internet outages, slow speed in multiple cities due to 'overloading'
