ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has significantly expanded its international internet capacity with the launch of the South-East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe (SEA-ME-WE) 6 submarine cable system, the Ministry of Science and Technology said on Saturday.
According to a statement issued by the ministry, the 19,200-kilometre high-capacity fibre network connects the country to major digital hubs between Singapore and France.
The system, offering over 100 terabits per second (Tbps) of total capacity, provides one of the lowest-latency routes between Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Western Europe.
Under the deployment, Pakistan has been allocated 13.2 Tbps, of which 4 Tbps has been activated immediately — a major boost that will support cloud computing, data centres, fintech, e-commerce, streaming platforms and the broader digital economy.
The new SEA-ME-WE 6 network features more fibre pairs and more than double the capacity of earlier SEA-ME-WE systems, ensuring greater resilience across high-traffic Asia-Europe routes.
The ministry further stated that it also offers geo-diversified crossings through Egypt, improved fault protection, rapid scalability and lower operational costs for participating service providers.
Officials say the system strengthens global internet redundancy and adds a critical new layer to Pakistan’s digital backbone.
In February 2025, the Africa-1 submarine cable was successfully landed by Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd at Karachi.