Idea’s mobile network service on Saturday took a severe hit in Kerala and parts of Hyderabad and Bangalore, with its customers unable to make or receive calls or even log on to the Internet.
And even where there were some signs of network service available, poor connectivity ensured dropped calls and inordinate delay in services.
Idea reportedly has the highest number of mobile customers in India. With absolutely no network in Kerala, customers could not even get in touch with Customer Care to register their complaints.
Though the company did issue a statement attributing the breakdown of mobile services to a technical snag, even after hours of no-service, the fault is yet to be rectified. There are also unconfirmed reports of a similar issue with Airtel and Vodafone too.
Meanwhile, Idea customers staged a protest in front of the company office at Vyttila in Kochi. Social media was flooded with calls exhorting Idea users to opt for Mobile Number Portability (MNP) which allows them to transfer their current mobile number to another service without having to go for a number change.
Reports say that a technical snag in the service provider's master switch facility in Kakkanad was the reason for the outage.
For the telecom company that goes by the tag line ‘An idea can change your life’, it did not take much time for hashtags such as #NoIdea and #IdeaDown to crop up.
Idea is changing everyones life it seems. @ideacellular No calls No Network #Noidea :)
— Suji Jacob (@SujiJacob) July 2, 2016
@ideacellular Can't make calls,can't access internet.#Idea is down today in Kerala.Idea really changed my life and Schedule too. #NoIdea
— Abraham Joseph (@AbrahamAbruz) July 2, 2016
"An idea can change your life "
— ameer_pilappadi (@ameerpullath) July 2, 2016
നീതി പുലർത്തിയ തല വാചകം #IdeaDown
When social media is abuzz, can trolls be far behind?
Most of the memes that have become popular on social media are about people who realized Idea network was down after recharging 1 GB Internet pack.
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