Pakistan businesses reeling from slow internet blame testing for firewall

In Karachi, slow internet delays the connection of a man’s mobile WhatsApp. Internet speeds dropped by a reported 30-40% in Pakistan over the past few weeks. Photograph: Fareed Khan/AP

For the free online tech skill classes advertised, there were hundreds of Facebook “likes” and in the end 1,500 people signed up. But on the first day last week, only a handful of those registered managed to log in to the live session. The internet was working at a snail’s speed.

“We received hundreds of complaints,” says the course tutor, Wardah Noor, founder of the IT training firm XWave, based in Layyah, in the Pakistani province of Punjab.