Floods expose fragility of telecom infrastructure: report

The recent floods starting in the month of August have exposed the fragility of Pakistan’s telecommunications infrastructure and the weaknesses of broader structural environment within which mobile networks operate, according to a report by Islamabad-based research house Tabadlab. The report, authored Naeha Rashid, Maira Sheikh and Alina Khan, argues that without immediate intervention, the industry is prone to collapse. “Such a collapse would devastate not just Pakistan’s broader digital transformation journey, but also the lives of Pakistan’s 195 million telecommunications subscribers and 123 million broadband subscribers.” As 3,386 cell sites became inactive across flood-impacted provinces there was suspension of mobile connectivity and internet services and as a result thousands of flood victims could not contact or reach out to people, they knew or relief teams. Relief teams report difficulties in communicating with the departments concerned due to connectivity issues. To overcome short-term connectivity barriers, companies offered free on-net voice call services, but these solutions are short-term band-aids to a bigger set of issues.