Tech Desk 
Dec 02, 2024
With internet users across Pakistan pissed off by the fluctuation of internet outages followed by restoration, at least two online tools were found invalidating the government’s claims of uninterrupted internet services on Sunday.
Referring to the analysis of data from the tools measuring network stability and monitoring internet outages in real-time, Dawn discovered that access to various social media services on Sunday was unattainable for some and restricted for others.
The publication cited Internet Outage Detection and Analysis (IODA), a tool developed by the Internet Intelligence Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology, stating that these disruptions remained intact for hours.
Another tool, designed to measure internet connectivity and detect outages “in near real-time”, indicated stable connection at the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) level throughout the day.
A network expert said the stability of BGP routes—unique identifiers allotted to major internet service providers (ISPs)—indicated no widespread disruption was reported.
“Any disruption in BGP stability indicates a network-wide issue which usually occurs as a result of a submarine cable fault or fire at a data centre, etc,” the expert said.
However, IODA found throttling in the internet based on its examination of traffic to Google services. The tool's data showed “abnormally restricted” internet access in Pakistan between Saturday 10pm and Sunday 8:30am and then from 1:30pm to 6pm, the expert explained.
