Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) customers have begun receiving SMS notifications warning of potential service degradations for Meta-owned platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Threads. The alerts attribute the issue to scheduled maintenance by Meta, set to occur from 1:00 AM on December 11, 2025, to 1:00 PM on December 12, 2025.
The PTCL message reads:
“Meta will be conducting maintenance activity from 1 AM on 11 Dec to 1 PM on 12 Dec. You may experience degradation on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and other Meta services. Inconvenience is regretted.” It also offers opt-out instructions for promotional messages.
This alert arrives against a backdrop of persistent internet instability in Pakistan. Over the past several months, users have reported intermittent slowdowns and partial outages across various platforms, particularly during peak evening hours. Internet service providers (ISPs), including PTCL, have frequently cited “emergency global activities,” such as repairs to undersea submarine cables as the culprits. Notable incidents include:
Despite PTCL’s efforts to add backup bandwidth, boosting total capacity to 13 Tbps, national usage hovers at 7–8 Tbps, leaving little margin for error. So when Meta announces they need to go down for some maintenance, few feel like this is a legitimate excuse and not incompetence on PTCL’s part as usual. Adding fuel to the fire is reports from third-party monitoring tools, such as Downdetector, which currently show no elevated reports of global Meta outages or maintenance announcements.
Similarly, PTCL’s official website and social channels (@PTCLOfficial on X) have not posted public confirmations of this specific window, aligning with the company’s pattern of using SMS for targeted customer alerts rather than broad announcements. Which begs the question, is the news fabricated?
The timing of this alert stirs memories of Meta’s high-profile global outage on December 11, 2024. That event, which lasted about five hours, affected tens of millions worldwide, including over 100,000 concurrent reports on Downdetector for Facebook alone (peaking at 4 million across platforms). Users encountered login failures, feed blackouts, and messaging delays, stemming from a backend configuration error in Meta’s routing systems. Meta’s engineering team swiftly acknowledged the “technical issue” via X and restored 99% of services by evening.
Experts in telecom and cybersecurity, including those from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), point out that such disruptions are rarely tied to proactive maintenance. Instead, they often arise from cascading failures in BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) routing, DNS resolution, or peering agreements between ISPs and content delivery networks (CDNs) like Meta’s.
In Pakistan’s case, fragmented complaints from users on smaller ISPs (e.g., StormFiber, Nayatel, etc.) describe app-specific lags, such as delayed WhatsApp deliveries or Instagram story buffering, rather than total blackouts. This patchwork pattern underscores the challenge of pinpointing causes: Is it Meta’s end, PTCL’s international gateways, or downstream propagation?
If the PTCL alert proves legitimate, a coordinated maintenance period could explain intermittent service problems observed in Pakistan in recent weeks. However, given the lack of confirmation from Meta or independent outage trackers, users should treat the message with caution and avoid assuming broad platform unavailability.
For now, customers are advised to treat any disruption as a potential routing or ISP-level issue. They may consider alternative communication channels if they rely heavily on Meta’s services.
While maintenance or outages may be routine checkups and nothing more, they cause disproportionate disruption when large user bases rely on a few providers for social connection, work, and commerce. Especially in a country like Pakistan, where majority of internet-based freelancers depend on Meta services heavily each day. It feels like with each passing day, transparency around such maintenance windows becomes increasingly important.