Hightech Rumpus

On June 27, PTCL’s SEAMEWE-3 cable, the country’s only submarine fibre link, went "down" causing the entire country’s Internet connectivity to come to a grinding halt. A PTCL spokesperson had the following nugget to reassure all the businesses and individuals who have come to rely on the Internet: "Our engineers are checking the road route of the fibre link. It seems that the fault has occurred somewhere in the sea." If you want a combination of intuition, in-depth analysis, and striking detective skills PTCL is surely the place to go to -- maybe WAPDA can ask PTCL to help out with all the electricity theft cases that they can’t crack.

The link developed problems at 9 pm on the 27th and at the time of writing this piece on the 28th at 12:20 pm, the issue still hadn’t been resolved.

Fifteen hours in today’s technology business is a lifetime especially for companies that are providing services to foreign clients. While larger companies have satellite backups, small/medium companies which form the backbone of the software industry bear the brunt of the inefficiencies in the "system". It only takes a few of these "outages" for a foreign client to actually terminate a contract based on the perceived inadequate infrastructure. Yet there is hope on the horizon -- a consortium, which includes PTCL, is laying down the SEAMEWE-4 cable, which will introduce some semblance of risk management to the current situation by October/November.

An alternate fibre link with India is also being explored after much debate on the issue on the grounds of "security concerns". Certain quarters felt that this immensely affordable option should not be exercised, as it would make Pakistan vulnerable. Vulnerable to what, is my question to these paranoid quarters. No one is asking the Government of Pakistan or the Armed Forces to use this fibre link to connect; however technology companies, businesses, and individuals would benefit from it. Isn’t it more important to have a reliable infrastructure as opposed to ensuring that a few cranks sleep better at night?

Amir Mateen, the MD of the Pakistan Software Export Board agrees that while outages like this one do not bode well for the technology industry, but insists that the situation will be rectified "soon"; and with the SEAMEWE-4 submarine cable, and the potential link with India; the industry will not have to face such issues in the future. As they say umeed pe dunya qayim he; and these are the costs of doing business in the Land of the Pure. Most entrepreneurs will be spending much of the evening of June 28 calling their clients and pacifying them -- some will succeed while others won’t, but hey at least the technology revolution has arrived!

In most countries 15 hours is a lot of time, and repair work especially on such a vital communication link is carried out within a few hours, but as a friend laughingly said, "Maybe PTCL’s underwater linesmen are still on strike and the Army doesn’t have enough frogmen to go out there and take care of business." Interesting thought, though I think the cause is most likely bureaucratic inefficiency and the management structure of the bemoth we know as PTCL. Hopefully the Princes of Eitisalat will shake up the company and the camel of good fortune will smile on all of us.

So how does a blunder like this outage actually take place? Insiders claim that the fault was actually caused by a power outage at one of PTCL’s most important exchanges where equipment malfunctioned and backups are not available. While this hasn’t been confirmed it’s highly plausible given the kind of power fluctuations everyone has been experiencing lately. It’s also highly plausible given the state of complete chaos that PTCL operates under.

A year ago my company’s high speed DSL went down, and I raised hell with the service provider who immediately pointed the finger at the local PTCL exchange. A visit to the exchange revealed that the exchange had been painted and in that aesthetic revamping the ISP’s equipment had been knocked over and broken; hence about 100 customers in the area had their connectivity disrupted. This was one of those moments where you just look up at the sky and ask God, "Why?" and walk away from the situation. I couldn’t even try and think up of something to say to our company’s customers whose work had been disrupted as I felt it would be tantamount to "the dog ate my homework" excuse from school!

The Brinces may have bought a 26% stake along with management rights in Bee-TCL, but I sure do hope they know what kind of a ride they’re in for. Maybe they do and maybe they don’t; but I can assure them that this will be the wildest magic carpet ride that they’ve ever been on.