ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has significantly expanded its international internet capacity with the landing of the SEA-ME-WE 6 submarine cable system, the Ministry of Science and Technology said on Saturday.
The 19,200-kilometre fibre network links Pakistan to major digital hubs between Singapore and France, the ministry said in a statement.
The system offers more than 100 terabits per second (Tbps) of total capacity and provides one of the lowest-latency routes between South-East Asia, the Middle East and Western Europe.
Immediate bandwidth increase for Pakistan
Under the deployment, Pakistan has been allocated 13.2 Tbps of capacity, the statement said. Of that, 4 Tbps has been activated immediately.
Officials said the added bandwidth will support cloud computing, data centres, fintech, e-commerce, streaming platforms and the broader digital economy.
The ministry said SEA-ME-WE 6 features more fibre pairs and more than double the capacity of earlier SEA-ME-WE systems.
Africa1 اور 2Africa کے بعدپاکستان کی پچھلے ایک سال میں تیسری (اور کل نویں)سب مرین کیبل SeMeWe6 آج دوپہر 12 بجے پاکستانی ساحل تک پہنچ گئی
یہ کیبل 21,000km ہے،فرانس سےسنگاپور تک جاتی ہے اور پاکستان کی موجودہ کھپت میں40٪اضافی صلاحیت شامل کرے گی#transworld #DigitalNationPakistan pic.twitter.com/2RDimkuLkE
— Shaza Fatima Khawaja (@ShazaFK) November 22, 2025
It provides geo-diversified crossings through Egypt, improved fault protection, rapid scalability and lower operating costs for service providers.
The system will add an essential redundancy layer to Pakistan’s global internet backbone, officials added.
Consortium and industry links
The project consortium includes Pakistan’s Transworld Associates along with a range of international carriers, the ministry said.
Partners named in the statement include Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company, Bharti Airtel, Dhiraagu, Djibouti Telecom, Mobily, Orange, Singtel, Sri Lanka Telecom, Telecom Egypt, Telekom Malaysia and Telin.
The ministry noted that Pakistan has recently bolstered its submarine cable links. In February 2025, Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL) landed the Africa-1 cable at Karachi.
Transworld Associates linked the Africa-2 cable to its Karachi landing station in December, the statement said.
Current international links to Pakistan
Officials said Pakistan is currently served by six international submarine systems with a combined capacity of about 13 Tbps.
These include Asia-Africa-Europe 1 (AAE-1), South-East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 4 (SMW4) and India-Middle East-Western Europe (IMEWE), managed by PTCL; and SMW-5 and Transworld Associates’ TWA-1, operated by Transworld Associates.
Cyber Internet Services operates the Pakistan and East Africa Connecting Europe (PEACE) cable.
Government sources, cited by local media, said the boost in international bandwidth is expected to reduce latency, improve service reliability and lower network costs for carriers.
The ministry said the new capacity will help Pakistan scale digital services and attract investment in data centres and cloud infrastructure.
The ministry added that the SEA-ME-WE 6 deployment strengthens global internet redundancy and diversifies high-traffic Asia–Europe routes, improving Pakistan’s connectivity at a critical time for digital growth.
